Feb 26 2010
I attended a very interesting webinar recently about Cloud Computing. It featured a case study about a Spanish company called Yoigo. It was claimed that Yoigo used a Cloud Computing backend to become operational in 150 days!
This is actually quite funny, because according to Yoigo the company had the license for the previous six years during which it was not used!
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Dec 15 2009
Vodafone has updated its Irish website recently. The two changes that excite me the most are:
The timing of these changes is perfect for me to send all my Christmas greetings :)
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Nov 24 2009
Delighted to read Threat to Eircom ‘three strikes’ plan. It will be interesting to see how Eircom reacts!
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Oct 25 2009
I read an article during the week about a letter of support for Net Neutrality from some of the biggest, and most well-known, Internet based companies in the world. The article is Big names support net neutrality, and it lists the following supporters:
The letter, signed by the chief executives of Google, Ebay, Skype, Facebook, Amazon and Sony Electronics among others, says that maintaining data neutrality helps businesses to compete on the basis of content alone.
And…
Other signatories included community websites Digg, Flickr, LinkedIn and Craigslist.
This list of companies does not really surprise me, as they probably have the most to gain from Net Neutrality. Conversely, it is probably the telcos who have the most to loose!
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Aug 08 2009
I just heard this afternoon that a friend of mine has recently launched a new company called Glorsoft. In the company’s own words…
Glorsoft is a leading software company focused on the development of .NET based IVR and Voice Application development tools.
Our goal is to simplify telephony programming to the extent that any .NET developer can create voice applications without the need to learn any new skills.Velocity 2.0 is our flagship development toolkit.
I hope that this new venture experiences great success!
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Jun 17 2009
I saw an interesting article on the news this evening describing how the Irish Government is currently investigating the issue of mobile phone bullying. For more details about this, including video footage, see Criticism of delay in mobile bullying measures.
The facility to block communication from certain numbers does not currently exist because there has not been a need for it until recently. This facility would be part of general policy management, and I expect that there will be many advancements in this area in the near future. There are many companies currently developing solutions in this area, including two Irish companies:
So there should be policy management solutions deployed by the mobile phone network operators in Ireland very soon.
It really annoys me to hear politicians giving the impression that that know what they are talking about when it comes to technology!
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Jun 11 2009
I had a Kit Kat Chunky after lunch today. It was delicious! I was reading the packaging as I was munching, and the following caught my attention:
Contact us FREE
0800 604 604 (UK)
00800 6378 5385 (ROI)
The UK freephone number prefix is what I expect (0800), but the Irish (ROI) freephone number is not! I was expecting a 1800 prefix :o
After some brief investigation, I discovered that the 00800 prefix is for Universal International Freephone Numbers. It was my first time to see one of these numbers!
While I was reading about these UIFNs I also came across the European Telephony Numbering Space. I have never seen any of these numbers, but I think that they are a great idea!
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May 15 2009
I read last night that Vodafone is abolishing all roaming charges for the summer!
I think that this is brilliant, and I hope that it becomes permanent! Also, I hope that this is rolled-out across all Vodafone operations!
You can read more about this in Summer roaming promotion – mobile roaming service from Vodafone.
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May 14 2009
Vodafone has announced that it is creating an online application store. I think that this is an interesting move, because as far as I am aware it is the first time that a mobile phone network operator has actually created its own application store.
This announcement is evidence of the shifting role of telcos from simple bit-carriers to providers of value-added applications and services. This is turn should increase revenues significantly, without incurring proportional costs.
I think that the advantages of this strategy to users are:
I think that the advantages of this strategy for developers are:
So it is a win-win-win situation!
For more details about this story see Voda joins app store wars with smart pipe approach.
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Apr 21 2009
Today RTE launched its on-demand video player, which is unimaginatively called RTÉ Player. I have not had a chance to try it yet, but I already watch a lot of RTE current affairs content on demand. Perhaps my biggest misgiving about the new player is the fact that it is browser based, rather than utilising a separate standalone application.
For more details about this story see RTÉ launches catch-up TV service.
The BBC launched a similar on-demand video player over a year ago called the iPlayer. This caused excessive network usage at that time for BT, and this resulted in extra charges to end-users. This highlighted the increasing problems in the relationship between content producer and content distributor. Ultimately, they will both need to work together! To read more about this see Jaw Jaw, Not War, War.
The next logical step in the roll-out of IP based video on-demand is to supply end-users with set-top boxes. Indeed, this is already being considered for the iPlayer according to BBC, ITV and BT plan to bring iPlayer-style services to TVs. I wonder will RTE do this also!
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