Briefly Noted: Updates, Observations and Trends

Each month, we collect miscellaneous happenings, studies, trends or observations you might have missed. This month's briefs include Finland's push toward wireless broadband, place shifting progress and OECD broadband numbers.

Wireless Broadband Coming To Finland

Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communication has approved a rollout schedule for a nationwide wireless broadband network. Digita’s @450 network will be inaugurated in April of 2007, after delays caused by radio frequency coordination with neighboring countries. The network, operating in the 450MHz band, is planned to cover 80 per cent of the country by June 2008 and all of Finland by the end of 2009. It is being done in conjunction with Siemens, and uses Qualcomm/Flarion's FLASH-OFDM technology. ( www.mintc.fi/english ) ( www.digita.fi ) ( www.siemens.com ) ( www.qualcomm.com )

Place shifting Progress

Place shifting to mobile phones was the subject of two recent announcements.

• Nokia is working with Orb Networks to integrate Orb MyCasting into the Nokia N80 Internet Edition. Orb provides a way to remotely access digital media from your home computer using any Web connected device.
• Sling Media will make a version of the SlingPlayer Mobile software for the Symbian OS platform. SlingPlayer Mobile allows users to stream content from their home TV to their mobile phone, including recorded shows, control of live content and to schedule recordings. Nokia has been a major user of the Symbian OS so it is interesting that their announcement was with Orb.

( www.orb.com ) ( www.slingmedia.com ) ( www.symbian.com )

OECD Broadband Numbers

A report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) indicated that there were 181 million broadband subscribers in developed nations at the end of June, rising 33% over the course of the year. Denmark now leads the OECD with a broadband penetration rate of 29.3 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Japan leads the OECD in fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) with 6.3 million fiber subscribers. The US has the largest total number of broadband subscribers in the OECD at 57 million representing 31% of all OECD broadband connections, but ranks 12th in terms of broadband penetration. ( www.oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband )