This week saw LG launch its new SMART fridge at the Consumer Electronics Show. While ‘white goods’ aren’t normally on my radar, the new LG SMART fridge has caught my eye. Not only does it put connectivity to a very clever use , it also quite simply offers an ingenuous solution to a very common problem.

The SMART fridge has a large LCD touch-screen and camera, as well as an internet connection which allows it to download recipes and automatically add food to a user’s online shopping account when stocks are running low. Once a recipe is chosen, the fridge can switch on the oven to the correct temperature and set a timer via a wireless connection.  All that is left is for the cook to follow the recipe displayed on the LCD screen on the fridge door. The camera allows you to see what is in your fridge from a mobile phone, including sell-by dates of foods – handy if you have left your shopping list at home.

If all of that doesn’t strike you as compelling enough a reason to seriously consider buying into this ‘Next-Gen’ lifestyle, then consider this next feature; the fridge’s “blast-chiller” drawer, which swirls chilled air to prevent ice crystals from forming, can chill a bottle of wine in eight minutes and a beer can in five. SOLD.

The SMART fridge highlights the opportunities presented to us by internet connectivity and also the pressing need for IPv6 adoption. In recent times we have witnessed the explosion of handheld devices, such as smart phones and tablets, all needing their own IP address, now it would appear our household devices are set to become net-centric too. Such developments not only exacerbate the depletion of IPv4, they also illustrate the benefit of IPv6 – as the protocol allows for multiple devices to have individual IP public addresses behind one connection.

Read our latest opinion piece: http://www.telecoms.com/38592/4g-and-the-race-to-provide-superfast-broadband/

A technology report by Accenture, based on television viewing and purchasing habits, has highlighted some interesting figures – emphasising the shift towards Internet based television streaming. Discussion of the swing towards ‘on demand’ television is by no means a new topic , but the speed of this change will come as a shock to many television makers and broadcasters.

The report shows that the number of consumers who watch broadcast or cable television in a typical week plunged to 48% in 2011 from 71% in 2009. Accenture’s explanation for the trend is that the TV is losing ground to other devices – smart phones, laptops and tablets – in the battle for consumer eyeballs. The survey does not conclude that everyone has suddenly stopped watching video and starting reading books and listening to the radio; rather, consumers are simply doing their watching in different places, on different devices.

It is interesting to note that of the 1,000 people surveyed over a wide range of countries 53% own a Smartphone, (up from 28% in 2010) tablet ownership jumped to 12%, from 8% in 2010. The percentage of the survey group that intends to buy a Smartphone jumped to 27%, from 24%. For tablets, the number of consumers who plan to make a purchase jumped to 16%, from 8% a year ago.

I would be intrigued to see the affects the tablet and live online net streaming will have on broadcast figures for the 2012 games. Will viewing figures be ‘down’ based on trends as detailed above? If we are all watching online how will connectivity networks cope? We wouldn’t want to miss those Golden Olympic moments due to a spluttering contention effected streaming signal… if that is the case I will happily re-establish my relationship with TV, as I’m sure millions of others will too.

We’ve just announced the largest publicly available 1Gb/s Fibre to the home infrastructure in the UK, a joint initiative between Fluidata and Independent Fibre Networks Limited (IFNL), which is part of the Inexus Group of Companies. IFNL’s infrastructure connects into Fluidata’s wholly-owned national network, which means that we can deliver superfast broadband via a choice of more than 40 ISPs to more than 50,000 newly built commercial and residential properties, in 20 sites in the UK.

This means that ISPs can access Fluidata’s next generation network for a low one-off cost – mitigating the high costs associated with tunnelling into hard-to-reach areas. As a result, IFNL’s customers have a broad choice of ISPs, which helps keep costs down and encourage the development of new services. This offers businesses and residents in those areas the largest choice of ISPs on any FTTH deployment in the UK today and is the first time that up to 1Gb/s has been made available on such a large scale to residential homes.

We know that the UK is lagging in FTTH provision, from recent statistics published by the FTTH Council. According to Chair, Chris Holden, the UK had only 4,500 homes directly fibred in June 2011, but Ireland had 9,700 connected to fibre and Iceland 13,900. Lithuania had 343,400 and Italy 357,000, both exceeding Germany’s 123,300 and Spain’s 101,130.

So the Fluidata/IFNL project represents the first major tranche of FTTH connections andshould give the market some much needed confidence. It’s a big step forward and shows FTTH is a viable and sensible option for the long-term. It also shows that fibre can be commercially deployed on scale without government hand-outs, which compliments the work we are doing in rural communities.

IFNL provides, open access, high speed FTTH connectivity to property developers looking to install future-proof technology for homes and businesses. Among the benefits of fibre is the reduced carbon impact of telecommunications infrastructure for developers and greatly improved bandwidth, compared to copper infrastructures.  This is proving very attractive to developers as they look to meet the sustainable codes for new builds while also looking to improve the desirability of their developments for potential residents.

As each new development comes online it will be seamlessly integrated into Fluidata’s existing platform, enabling any ISPs connected to the platform to market and sell their services straight away.  Speeds start from 50 Mb/s going up to a current maximum of 1Gb/s per property. Without the need to dig fibre into the premises, installation can be dramatically reduced to a few days for customers luckily enough to find themselves in one of the new developments.

We spoke to Andrew Robinson from IFNL, who told us: “We have been deploying FTTH technology to new housing developments since 2008, we have 20 sites connected or in build and additional sites being won on a regular basis.  As part of the Inexus Group of companies, IFNL is focused on providing the very best services to our connected businesses and homes. We believe that our FTTH solution is ‘state-of-the-art’, the benefits of fibre stop where the fibre stops, which unlike most of our competition is in the home or business.  We’re excited to be working with Fluidata as this will help to increase retail competition on our network and ensure our customers have great choice and receive best value as well as superfast speeds.”

Ok, so I live out in the country and I’m in the privileged position of getting almost 3Mb/s on my ADSL line at home.

But is speed the only problem that rural communities (and councils) face? I’m not convinced, yes it takes me an age (relatively) to download updates and programs but I can equally go for a walk (or the pub) whilst I wait for whatever Microsoft update I need.

But streaming, that’s where my problems lies, or should I say, any need for constant low latency connectivity to a server, now most people will think why is that important? Let me explain: The reason we all need more speed is for the user experience at home or in the office. Part of that user experience is how quickly can I get a piece of data from over there, to me at my computer. But if you are needing a constant stream of data say of video and sound, say around the 27^th of July this year, and you keep dropping packets you’re not going to be a happy user.

I’m pointing out the problem of a recreational user but what if the your talking about a home user or small office using Citrix or a thin client solution, this is where the problem often gets very worrying. For those of you who don’t know, as soon as a packet is dropped on a Citrix session, the client software has a bit of a moment and decides it needs to check the connection to the central server, meaning the user hopes that they saved the last piece of work they were doing and logs back on. This is often the problem of latency and packet loss, unfortunately for the end user and ISP there is a whole host of things that can cause this. From dodgy old routing equipment (on the ISP’s core network) to the end user not having a good enough CPE.

So are there solutions to this issue? Well the short answer is “yes” , however the issues are often specific to each end user due to the amount of things that can affect the latency. If you are having problems and you don’t use our connections, come have a chat with one of our consultants who should be able to help.

On a final point  (not an intentionally smug way, but…) I was lucky enough to upgrade my line at home to a BURST connection last year, so high latency and packet loss can’t be my excuse as to why I’m so rubbish at Battlefield 3!