Google Nexus 7 Could Heavily Influence the Great Tablet Wars

ANDROID STILL HAS A LONG WAY TO GO TO BEST APPLE'S IPAD. BUT THE ARRIVAL OF THE NEXUS 7--WITH ANDROID 4.1 JELLY BEAN AS ITS OPERATING SYSTEM--MAY SHAKE UP THE TABLET MARKET.

With today's launch of its Nexus 7 tablet, Google gives the current tablet market a much-needed jolt of energy.

The Nexus 7 is the tablet that Google should have launched with a year ago. The Nexus 7 packs a high-performance, no-compromise set of features at attractive prices--$199 for the 8GB model and $249 for the 16GB model.

This winning--on paper--combo will immediately put the Nexus at center stage. It also will make all current Android tablet makers reevaluate their own offerings on the market. But selling a tablet directly to consumers online, with no clear changes to the app ecosystem behind it, won't be enough for Google to gain market share at Apple's expense.

Google Nexus 7

Manufactured by Asus, the Nexus 7 tablet represents the first commercial manifestation of Nvdia's Project Kai. Nvidia designed the Kai reference platform to provide manufacturers with a shortcut blueprint of how to create a competitive tablet at consumer-friendly pricing.

At CES 2012, when Nvidia and Asus announced plans to produce a Tegra 3 tablet for $250, the two companies clearly had the Amazon Kindle Fire in their sights. 

The Kindle Fire, which shipped last fall, is the best-selling Android tablet thanks in large part to its low price of $199. But the Kindle Fire takes a lot of heat for its mediocre 1024-by-600-pixel display, its forked Android operating system, its limited specs (no camera, little onboard storage, no expansion), and its slow performance. Sales numbers for the Kindle Fire have dropped off since the initial burst of enthusiasm from consumers; but no other Android tablet has made a significant impact, either.

Amazon Kindle Fire

                                                                                            

GOOGLE TAKES CHARGE OF ITS OWN TABLET--SORT OF

Google's move into the tablet arena with its own branded Nexus tablet is significant for several reasons. First, it shows that the company recognizes how important it is for an OS maker to be deeply involved in creating hardware that complements its own software.

For evidence, look no further than the mess of compromises and mediocrity we've seen from Android tablets over the past year, including poor choices in weight, processors, display, and design.

In today's Apple-dominated, post-PC age, a tablet with hardware designed independently of its operating system is unlikely to emerge as an impressive flagship device. And certainly that approach isn't the way to generate the Apple-level frenzy that every tablet maker yearns for.

That's why Microsoft jumped into the PC hardware fray for the first time in 37 years, with last week's introduction of the Microsoft Surface tablet. 

[Read: "Microsoft Hardware: Successes and Failures"]

And it's why Google is expanding on what it already offers with its Nexus phone line by now offering its own tablet. The company should have taken this step last year when it launched Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the first operating system designed specifically for tablets, instead of crossing its fingers and hoping for the best with the spectacularly unimpressive Motorola Xoom tablet.

Microsoft Surface tablet

To what extent the Nexus 7 embodies Google's vision of a tablet is unclear. One area where Google may have influenced its design is in the tablet's inclusion of near-field communication capability. But beyond that, the core specs for the Nexus 7 are the ones that Nvidia and Asus talked about as far back as CES.

Back then, Asus went so far as to introduce the Asus Eee Pad MeMo 370T with specs, price, and a time frame for availability that are quite similar to the Nexus 7's. Since CES, however, Asus has said nothing more about its MeMo plans. Now we know why.

Clearly, all parties recognized that for the Android tablet OS to succeed, something had to change. And the reality of Kai should have a significant impact on current tablet makers.

How can Toshiba's Excite 7.7 tablet, priced at $550 and carrying a 1280-by-800-pixel display, compete with Google's Nexus 7 when the latter offers the same screen resolution and costs $300 less? The Toshiba does have a 0.7-inch larger screen, but both have 16GB of memory and both run on an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor.

Meanwhile, Amazon is rumored to be prepping its coming Kindle Fire replacement for a midsummer launch. Whether Amazon will step up its game with that tablet remains to be seen; but based on today's news, we believe that the company will need to have a competitive answer to remain firmly in the mix.

Here's a chart that compares the specs of the Google Nexus 7 to five other tablets:

THE MISSING ELEMENTS

So far, Google hasn't indicated that it will sell the tablet anywhere except at its Google Play online store. Consequently, consumers who want to do their own hands-on comparison of the Nexus 7 with other tablets will be out of luck.

Google's approach with the Nexus 7 addresses a relatively small subset of the problems facing the Android tablet market. Among the other issues to be resolved in the bigger picture are better-resolution displays and improved, lighter designs.

Perhaps most significantly, Google's conference has as yet lacked any discussion of the OS- and device-fragmentation issues that plague developers. I routinely hear these issues cited as the number-one reason that developers choose to make an iPad app instead of an Android app; and the tiny market share that Android tablets have thus far achieved has done nothing to convince developers to fully embrace the Android tablet ecosystem.

Google played up the fact that the company now lists some 600,000 apps in the Play store; but it didn't say how many of those apps are optimized for and work well on a tablet.

The app ecosystem, unfortunately, still remains a sticking point for Android tablets--and a key factor that makes it harder to recommend an Android tablet to consumers eager for the next great, cool app.

The bottom line is Android still has a long way to go to surpass Apple's iPad. But when we look back, the delivery of the Nexus 7, with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, may mark a turning point in the Great Tablet Wars.

Google Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/

Ultimate MacBook Air 2012 Models: Tested

MACWORLD LAB RAN PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKS ON TWO MACBOOK AIR BUILD-TO-ORDER (BTO) MODELS, AND THE RESULTS SHOW THAT WHILE BOTH CUSTOM SYSTEMS WERE FASTER THAN THE HIGH-END STOCK MACBOOK AIRS, THE UPGRADES TO THE 11-INCH GIVES A BIGGER PERFORMANCE BANG FOR THE BUCK.

We've posted benchmark results and a full review of the 2012 MacBook Airs, but the work in the lab has not stopped. Apple usually offers optional upgrades that allow you to tailor a standard-configuration system to best suit your individual needs. Macworld Lab ran performance benchmarks on two MacBook Air build-to-order (BTO) models, and the results show that while both custom systems were faster than the high-end stock MacBook Airs, the upgrades to the 11-inch gives a bigger performance bang for the buck.

11-INCH BTO MACBOOK AIR ($1649)

Our custom 11-inch MacBook Air takes the stock high-end $1099 model and upgrades the processor from the standard dual-core 1.7GHz Core i5 to a dual-core 2.0GHz Core i7, a $150 option. Our custom system also has 8GB of RAM rather than the stock 4GB, an extra $100. Finally, we upgraded to 256GB of flash storage from the standard 128GB for an additional $300 for a grand total of $1649 for this BTO MacBook Air.

While the BTO system ended up costing us 50 percent more than the stock high-end model, it boosted overall performance by 21 percent. Every single test we ran benefitted from the extra RAM, extra storage, extra processing power, or a combination of the upgrades.

Aside from the faster clock speed, the dual-core 2.0GHz Core i7 upgrade offers 4MB of shared L2 cache as opposed to 3MB on the Core i5. Both the Core i5 and Core i7 processors offer Hyper Threading which allows the processor to offer four virtual cores, and Turbo Boost which lets the processor crank itself up to faster clock speeds when necessary (up to 2.6GHz on the 1.7GHz i5 and up to 3.2GHz on the 2.0GHz Core i7). The dual-core 1.8GHz Core i5 in the stock 13-inch MacBook Air can reach speeds of 2.8GHz using Turbo Boost.

In processor-intensive tasks, the BTO 11-inch MacBook Air’s results are between 12 and 18 percent higher than on the stock 11-inch model. Our file duplication tests are 18 percent faster on the BTO 11-inch model, and Aperture import and process test is 22 percent faster.

13-INCH BTO MACBOOK AIR ($2199)

The upgrade options with the 13-inch MacBook Air start with the high-end stock ($1499) dual-core 1.8GHz Core i5 model. You can upgrade to the same dual-core 2.0GHz Core i7 processor as the 11-inch model for $100 (which is $50 less than on the 11-inch MacBook Air). We also upgraded to 8GB of RAM for an additional $100, and increased the amount of flash storage from 256GB to 512GB for an extra $500. The total cost of our ultimate BTO 13-inch MacBook Air was $2199.

However, the upgrades only resulted in an increase of 11 percent overall in Speedmark 7. The stock 13-inch MacBook Air already started with a faster processor and more flash storage capacity, so you might expect the boost to be subtle. Of course, the biggest expense by far in this custom upgrade is the increased storage capacity—that’s not something you evaluate with a stopwatch.

Processor-intensive tests are between 13 and 14 percent faster on the BTO 13-inch MacBook Air, but results are between 4 and 15 percent faster on every test that we ran.

The BTO 13-inch MacBook Air was 21 percent faster overall than the $1499 2.9GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro, with the Air’s fast flash storage finishing our duplicate folder test 73 percent faster than the MacBook Pro, and unzipping a 4GB file 78 percent faster. Importing files into iPhoto, iMovie, and Aperture are also faster on the MacBook Air. Processor scores were faster on the MacBook Pro, however, with that model scoring 7 percent higher in MathematicaMark 8 and 12 percent higher in Cinebench’s CPU test and our Handbrake encode tests.

At $2199, our custom MacBook Air cost exactly as much as a 2012 Retina display 15-inch MacBook Pro with a quad-core 2.3GHz Core i7, 8GB RAM, and 250GB of flash storage. The Retina MacBook Pro was 39 percent faster overall than the BTO 13-inch MacBook Air, 71 percent faster in MathematicaMark 8, and 50 percent faster in the Cinebench CPU test. The Retina MacBook Pro was also able to display more than twice the number of frames per second in Portal 2, and 79 percent more frames per second in our Cinebench OpenGL test.

BENCHMARKS: BTO MACBOOK AIRS 2012

BENCHMARKS: BTO MACBOOK AIRS 2012

BENCHMARKS: BTO MACBOOK AIRS 2012

BENCHMARKS: BTO MACBOOK AIRS 2012

All times in seconds (lower is better), except for Cinebench OpenGL and Portal, which are frames per second (higher is better), and Mathematica and Speedmark, which are scores (higher is better). Best results in bold. Reference sytems in italics.

How We Tested: We duplicated a 2GB file, created a Zip archive in the Finder from the two 2GB files and then unzipped it. In Pages ’09 we converted and opened a 500-page Microsoft Word document. In iMovie ’11, we imported a two-minute clip from a camera archive, and performed a Share Movie to iTunes for Mobile Devices function. In iTunes, we converted 135 minutes of AAC audio files to MP3 using the High Quality setting. In Handbrake 0.9.5, we encoded a single chapter (to H.264 using the application’s Normal settings) from a DVD that was previously ripped to the hard drive. In Cinebench, we recorded how long it took to render a scene with multiprocessors. We installed Parallels 6 and ran WorldBench 6’s Multitask test. In Photoshop CS5, we ran an action script on a 100MB image file. In Aperture 3 we performed an Import and Process on 207 photos. In iPhoto ‘11, we imported 500 photos. We ran Mathematica 8’s Evaluate Notebook Test. In Cinebench, we ran that application’s OpenGL frames-per-second test. Using Steam and Steam for Mac, we created a self-running demo for Portal and recorded the frames-per-second rating.—Macworld Lab testing by James Galbraith, William Wang, Kean Bartelman, and Mauricio Grijalva.

Check back soon for more benchmarks on custom configuration Macs. You can also compare these MacBook Airs to other models by checking out our complete set of Speedmark 7 test results. As always, your comments and test suggestions are welcomed.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/

New Sony VAIO Z is Thinner, Lighter than MacBook Air

Sony has introduced a new VAIO Z laptop in Europe to rival Apple's MacBook Air slenderness. Sony's new carbon fiber laptop is not only thinner and lighter than the Air, but also packs a punch in the specs department.

The European version of the VAIO Z has a 13.1-inch high-resolution (1600 by 900 pixels) display (16:9 aspect ratio), a 2.7GHz Intel Core i7 processor (with Turbo Boost up to 3.40GHz, 8GB or SDRAM) and a 256GB SSD drive, all in a 16.65mm thick chassis, which is just a hair thinner than the MacBook Air's 17mm thickness. The Vaio Z is also 2.64 pounds, compared to the Air's 2.91 pounds.

Other features inside the VAIO Z include Wi-Fi, optional 3G, a backlit keyboard (something the MacBook Air is notably missing), a 1.3-megapixel webcam, and HDMI out. The laptop comes preloaded with 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the VAIO Z is the optional external dock, which connects to the laptop via Intel's Light Peak technology, more commonly known as Thunderbolt -- found in new iMacs, MacBook Pros. The port however uses a proprietary interface and a USB 3.0 socket to connect to other compatible accessories.

The dock, which will be sold separately, boosts the graphics performance of the laptop, from the built-in Intel HD Graphics 3000 to an AMD Radeon HD 6650M graphics card with 1GB of RAM, capable of supporting up to four monitors. The dock also has HDMI, VGA, USB.20 and 3.0 ports, and a Blu-ray optical drive.

Sony claims up to 7 hours of battery life on the VAIO Z, which can be extended to around 14 hours via an optional sheet battery that can be charged separately from the PC and added without removing the internal battery.

Sony Europe said the VAIO Z should be available in Europe in July, but did not specify an exact availability and pricing. Early indications, however, show that the Vaio Z won't come cheap. The laptop is now available to preorder in the UK, where it costs the equivalent of $1,835 (the dock for around $512). The most expensive off-the-shelf 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $1,600. No U.S. model, specs, availability, or price have yet been announced.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/

Kim DotCom warrants invalid, New Zealand judge rules

High Court judge finds search warrants were too general and rules the data in cloned drives should not have been released to the FBI. 

MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom.

The U.S. piracy case against MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom appears to have run aground, with a New Zealand court ruling that the search warrants issued in January were invalid.

New Zealand High Court Judge Helen Winkelmann ruled Thursday that the warrants did not adequately describe the offenses alleged, according to a report in the New Zealand Herald. "Indeed they fell well short of that," she said. "They were general warrants, and as such, are invalid.''

She also ruled that it was unlawful for the data confiscated in the raid to have been sent offshore, saying "the release of the cloned hard drives to the FBI for shipping to the United States was contrary to the 16 February direction" [given by the court] "that the items seized were to remain in the custody and control of the Commissioner of Police."

MegaUpload is a cloud-storage locker that DotCom claims was completely legitimate and protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. U.S. officials, who are trying to extradite Dotcom and six associates to face piracy and wire fraud charges, say he encouraged users to store pirated videos, music, software, and other media and then share them with others. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

DotCom, 38, was arrested in January at the mansion he leases near Auckland, New Zealand, after the U.S. handed down an indictment on criminal copyright violations and racketeering. Millions of dollars worth of cash,cars, and other possessions belonging to DotCom were seized during a sensational raid on his estate.

Soon after his arrest, news reports were filled with images of his $30 million mansion and of New Zealand police hauling away his pink Cadillac and Mercedes Benz. The United States said MegaUpload had cost Hollywood studios and other copyright owners $500 million.

Since that January raid, DotCom and some of the other MegaUpload defendants have won a string of favorable court decisions in New Zealand that have led to their release on bail, the return of some of their assets, and a court order that requires the FBI to show the evidence it has against the company. MegaUpload's lawyers are expected to appear in a Virginia federal court on Friday to argue that the charges should be tossed out.

DotCom recently received the support of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and famed former hacker Kevin Mitnick, who told DotCom, "I hope you win."

Source: http://news.cnet.com/

Google Makes Its Play in Tablets

Confirming rumors and leaks that preceded its I/O event, Google has officially unveiled the Nexus 7 tablet, a seven-inch slate manufactured by Asus and running the Jelly Bean version of Android. The Nexus 7 is priced at $200, which puts it in direct competition with Amazon's Kindle Fire and well below the price of Apple's market-leading iPad.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) launched its Nexus 7 tablet on Wednesday at its Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco.

The Google Nexus 7 tablet

The tablet, which is made by Asus, has an 1,280 by 800 display. It has an Nvidia(Nasdaq: NVDA) Tegra 3 quad-core CPU with that processor's associated 12-core GPU.

The Nexus tablet 7 has a front-facing camera and supports WiFi, Bluetooth and near-field communications (NFC). It also has a gyroscope.

Nexus 7 tablets run Jelly Bean, or Android 4.1. They weigh 340 gm. They offer up to 9 hours of HD video playback and 300 hours of standby on a single charge.

OF PRICING AND HEART ATTACKS

The Nexus 7 tablet is priced at US$200, with a $25 credit for the Google Play Store. It can be ordered from Google Play now. Orders ship in mid-July.
"I just got the specs on the tablet," Michael Morgan, a senior analyst at ABI Research, told TechNewsWorld. "I bet Amazon's (Nasdaq: AMZN) heart just stopped and its Fire just fizzled. I also wonder if Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) will be able to retain its price points with this on the market."
New iPads are priced starting at $500.

IT'S NOT ABOUT WINNING, IT'S ABOUT FUN

The Nexus 7 tablet is pretty much made for Google Play. The device is made to handle apps, videos, books and music, in addition to TV shows. Turning it on puts content from the Google Play Store up on the screen, and Google demoed two games, "Horn" and "Dead Trigger" at the launch.
Nexus 7 owners can either stream TV shows or download them. Google has struck deals with various content providers, including Disney (NYSE: DIS), Paramount, NBC and ABC. Owners of the tablet can now purchase movies on Google Play
Magazines on the Nexus 7 can be streamlined to show just the text and pictures. They will have interactive features so users can click a story on the title to open it up. Some magazines have a 14-day free trial period.
The Nexus 7 has a song widget that identifies the tunes users play and provide links to the Google Play store to download the songs. It also has a self-learning recommendations engine that recommends content based on what users have accessed previously. Its recommendations get better over time.

APPRAISING THE NEXUS 7

"At 7 inches and a $200 price point, [the Nexus 7] is making a value play for the core of where the iPad currently is," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld. "Google is betting that a lot of folks are happier with their laptops for creation and would rather have a device that was focused on consumption, particularly if it was priced closer to a portable DVD player."
The Nexus 7 has "good performance specs and a good and reasonable price point, but I believe 3G and 4G capability will be a requirement and an early differentiator," Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research, told TechNewsWorld.
"My initial thoughts are, good specs, should be good build quality knowing Asus, and good price," Peter King, a director at Strategy Analytics, remarked.

TAKING ON AMAZON

It looks as if Amazon is currently in Google's cross-hairs.
The Nexus 7's recommendation engine "could turn this tablet into a portal for online purchases, very similar to Amazon's approach with its Kindle Fire," Enderle said. "This could provide a significant additional revenue opportunity for [Google]."
There will be "no impact on iPad or [the Microsoft] Surface tablet, but Amazon might have a few sleepless nights," Strategy Analytics' King told TechNewsWorld.
However, Amazon might have the upper hand because it has the content, and, in the tablet world, content is king.
The Nexus 7 "is just another shiny new device," Tirias Research's McGregor said. "It does look like other tablets, and the difference will lie in the entire solution, especially the services and content."

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Google-Makes-Its-Play-in-Tablets-75491.html

Zynga Pulls Out the Glue Gun

Zynga's unleashed event ushered in to features for the company's gaming platform intended to keep players coming back. For example, multiplayer options will become available. "Multiplayer connectivity better keeps players in games because there's a bigger a sense of community and persistency around those games," said TechSavvyGlobal.com's Scott Steinberg.

Zynga (Nasdaq: ZNGA) made a number of announcements at its Unleashed event in San Francisco Tuesday, most of them aimed at the same goal: making its services "stickier" to its players.

"Social games have become a crowded marketplace," Scott Steinberg , digital game consultant and principal in TechSavvyGlobal.com, told TechNewsWorld. "It's hard to sustain interest because you have thousands of free games competing for users' attention.

"Loyalty is pretty low and churn rates are pretty high," he continued.

What Zynga showed in its announcements, he said, is that it's trying to expand its portfolio and introduce more hit games to maintain interest in its titles and services and grow its community.

"It's trying to create stickier experiences that'll keep players coming back for longer and have them more involved," he explained.

LEAP INTO MULTIPLAYER GAMES

At Unleashed, Zynga announced new additions to its "Ville" game line. "The Ville," available now, allows players to build a house of their dreams and share it with their friends. "ChefVille," online soon, gives players their own four-star kitchen where they can create appetizing dishes virtually and later in their own homes.

Other additions included a new casino game, "Zynga Elite Slots," expected to be online soon, and an update to its arcade game, Ruby Blast, which was launched last week.

Zynga also pulled the wraps off a number of community and developer initiatives. It demonstrated its Zynga Friends Network, a social network for players of the company's games. It includes features such as chat and multiplayer, or synchronous, gaming.

The introduction of multiplayer gaming is very interesting, according to Pietro Macchiarella, an analyst with Park Associates. Up to now, Zynga games have been asynchronous -- a player plays them at their leisure without regard for other players, he explained.

"Now Zynga can afford to have synchronous games because it has such a huge user base that it always have some players online," he told TechNewsWorld.

It's estimated that Zynga has 292 million users, 65 million of them using the service on a daily basis.

WOOING DEVELOPERS

Multiplayer games also tend to be sticky attractions, added Steinberg. "Multiplayer connectivity better keeps players in games because there's a bigger a sense of community and persistency around those games," he said.

On the developer front, Zynga announced a new API layer, which it will be making available to third-party developers, and its Zynga Partners for Mobile program, designed to give mobile game developers an opportunity to use the company's platform to obtain an audience for their offerings.

New platform partners were also revealed by Zynga. They include 50 Cubes, Majesco and Portalarium, who are joining in the Zynga fold.

While publicly effusive about its relationships with third party developers, it remains to be seen how they work in reality, according to R.W. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian. "There's a channel conflict there," he told TechNewsWorld.

"How much data do they really want to share with other developers?" he asked. "How much of their user base do they really want to share?"

"I wouldn't count on the third-party platform part of the story as really driving their business," he said.

CAUTIOUS SHARING

Nevertheless, Zynga could be a great resource for game developers, maintained Steinberg. "Zynga is a major player in social games and has the ability to activate tens of millions of users," he observed. "If it's able to bring some of that weight to bear for partners, then it could be a tremendously beneficial and successful partnership for those partners."

A key challenge to any social game maker these days is discovery, he explained. "You can have the greatest game in the world but if no one knows it exists, then it's utterly worthless."

"With so few opportunities on mobile and social to publicize yourself," he continued, "having the weight of Zynga behind you may be very effective."

"At the end of the day, though, developers don't want to cede their IP; they want to cede as little as their user base as possible," he added. 

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/

BT kicks off 330Mbps 'FTTP on Demand' trials, reveals pilot locations

Not everyone is apparently in love with British operator BT's green boxes. Still, that isn't stopping the company from serving up its high-fiber diet to those who want to have speedy Internet connections. For its latest project, BT's Openreach division has started offering an "FTTP on Demand" program that provides fiber-to-the-premises at 330Mbps speeds to folks or businesses who order the service. The project will be done in phases at eight locations, starting with High Wycombe, Bristol South and St Agnes, Cornwall in July. Next up is Edinburgh's Waverley exchange in September followed by Watford, Cardiff, Basingstoke and Manchester Central in 2013. Communications providers can decide to cover installations costs by absorbing a one-off charge, having higher monthly fees or passing the whole thing to the consumer. Want to gobble up more info about BT's latest fiber-filled broadband service? Then check out the good, old PR after the break.

Openreach announces 'FTTP(1) on demand' pilot locations

Openreach today revealed a list of eight locations where it will pilot the delivery of 'FTTP on Demand'. This service, which Openreach intends to make commercially available from Spring 2013, will enable customers to order an ultra-fast 330Mbps broadband connection directly to their home or business in an area served by Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC)(2) technology. Previously, in order to receive 330Mbps speeds, customers had to be located in an FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) enabled area.

The pilot will be held in two phases so that Openreach has sufficient time to explore and resolve the challenges in deploying the service with its Communications Provider (CP) customers.

Phase one, which is intended to test the planning and construction process, will run from July 2012 to early 2013 and allow participating CPs to place orders for a 330Mbps downstream, and either 20 or 30Mbps upstream service in parts of High Wycombe, Bristol South as well as in St Agnes, Cornwall where the service was first trialled. Edinburgh's Waverley exchange will be added to the pilot in September 2012.

Phase two, which will run from March to May 2013, will test new automated order processes, and focus on the 330Mbps downstream, 30Mbps upstream product. In addition to the first four areas, this phase will see the pilot extended to parts of Watford, Cardiff, Basingstoke, and Manchester Central.

Mike Galvin, Openreach's MD Network Investment said: "FTTP on Demand has great potential and so we are proceeding with these pilots. Whilst we believe FTTC will be our mass market consumer product for some time yet, FTTP may be of interest to small and medium sized businesses and so we want to make it accessible throughout our fibre footprint. This development can potentially help SMEs to compete both at home and abroad as well as maintain and create jobs across the UK."

Openreach is currently making fibre broadband available to homes and businesses across the UK. It has passed ten million premises with the technology to date and is due to pass approximately two thirds of UK premises by the end of 2014.

The business is primarily deploying Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology. This currently delivers downstream speeds of up to 80Mbps with upstream speeds of up to 20Mbps and could deliver even faster speeds in the future.

Openreach has also deployed Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology in 15 exchange areas to date. Outside those 15 areas, it is also exploring the option of deploying the service to multi dwelling units such as apartment blocks where the fibre can support multiple connections.

The pilots intend to make ultra-fast 330Mbps FTTP available 'on demand' in FTTC areas for the first time. CPs will be able to order the service where there is interest and then assist Openreach with the cost of deployment. It will then be up to the CP to decide whether to absorb that likely one-off charge, recover it through higher monthly prices or pass it on in full to their customer.

The pilots will enable Openreach to gain an in-depth understanding of the costs of deploying FTTP on Demand. Any installation fee is highly likely to be distance dependent given the nature of the necessary work.

(1) Fibre to the Premises, a broadband service where the fibre runs all the way from the exchange to the premises.
(2) Fibre to the Cabinet, a broadband service where fibre runs from the exchange to a roadside 'green cabinet' closer to the end-users' premises.

Source:  http://www.engadget.com/