An uninformed article at The Washington Post claimed that Japan had the worlds fastest Internet connection.

Quote:

Broadband service here is eight to 30 times as fast as in the United States — and considerably cheaper. Japan has the world’s fastest Internet connections, delivering more data at a lower cost than anywhere else, recent studies show.

The article got dugg many times and consequently became popular, but this simply isn’t true. It’s true that Japan has much faster and cheaper broadband in the USA, that’s not difficult at all, infact most developed Nations have better broadband service than the USA but the first country to develop super fast broadband was Korea, and the fastest connection service is in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is also the only place in the World that has a successful IPTV deployment with NOW that is actually a true challenger to Cable TV.

Sure there are individuals who have faster connections like the famous swede that has 40 G/bs going into her home, but as a mass residential product, Hong Kong and Korea were first to offer 100 Mbps into the home and since a few years ago also 1 Gbps per second. And that was all the way back in 2005!!

The US deserves a global greeting for independence day, regardless of the political unhappiness and the silly administration, the US was the jumpstart platform for the Internet as we know it today, and for that we need to say thank you! A Toast to you and independence day.

In Todays Business Week there was an article about the top most influential and meaningful  IT companies, it mentions the usual companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon (which it ranked nr. 1) and a variety of telecom companies.

Surprisingly Yahoo was not mentioned in this article, while it it certainly true that Yahoo has experienced some trouble and is no longer the media darling I would hardly call it a company without influence, growth prospects, and most of all it is still a highly profitable company.

Despite super strong fundamentals, Yahoo continues to drop out of favour, almost like  a downward spiral, it is unfair and dissapointing that even "so called renowned publications" would fall into this media trap of negativity, a few years from now Yahoo will most likely be sung praises again, and if anything will not fall into obsolescence.

By Wellington Grey

The URL is http://www.petitiononline.com/cksin/petition.html

Petition for a change in name of the proposed Commerce and Economic Development Bureau

The Administration proposed to create a new bureau namely, ‘Commerce and Economic Development Bureau’ by merging the existing Commerce, Industry and Technology Bureau (CITB) and part of the existing Economic Development and Labour Bureau. This re-organization is expected to be effective from 1 July 2007.

The new bureau will absorb all the statutory functions of CITB and the responsibility related to tourism, consumer protection and competition policy of the existing Economic Development and Labour Bureau. .  As explained in its proposal, the Administration expects the re-organization will bring merits and synergy among the policy on IT, creative industry and film industry.

We may share such view on such portfolio realignment.  But it is unacceptable and inappropriate that the remit of the bureau is re-titled as Commerce and Economic Development Bureau, dropping ‘technology’ in all government policy bureaux.

To reflect more accurately the fact that ICT policy falls into the jurisdiction of “Commerce and Economic Development Bureau” and, more importantly, in recognition of the importance of technology to Hong Kong as a knowledge-base economy, I intend to urge our Chief Executive, Mr. Donald Tsang, to rename the proposed Commerce and Economic Development Bureau as Economy, Commerce and Technology Bureau.  To make our voice loud and clear, I sincerely invite you to sign this joint letter.  You may also send your views to:

1. Mr. Donald Tsang, Chief Executive (ceo@ceo.gov.hk)
2. Mr. John Tsang, Director of the Chief Executive’s Office (ceo@ceo.gov.hk)
3. Mr. Rafael Hui, Chief Secretary of Administration( cso@cso.gov.hk)
4. Mr. Stephen Lam, Secretary for Constitutional Affairs (cabenq@cab.gov.hk)
5. Mr. Joseph Wong, Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology (cibenq@citb.gov.hk)

If we are not being heard and receive no positive response from the government, I will amend the Government Resolution to rename such policy bureau as Economy, Commerce and Technology Bureau.  If you would like to share your thought with me, please send to cksin@sinchungkai.org.hk

CK Sin

————

My general comment is that this should not be allowed, the drop of the name signifies the view that it does not value Technology….

Today we are launching fonero.be together with our partners Scarlet and Tidings. Fonero.be is a new ADSL wireless broadband provider based in Antwerp, Belgium. By combining their innovative WiFi services with the FON Community, Fonero.be customers and Foneros can easily connect to the Internet using WiFi around Belgium. Pricing for this service is 29.95€ per month for 6MB service. Thanks to teaming up with Fonero.be, and Scarlet as the ADSL and voice supplier, the Belgian market will provide a dense network of FONspots that are not only important for Foneros in Belgium but also those who visit Belgium.

The Time Warner news was picked up by another blog over at butterboom, they point out that Mid Levels is becoming a very  “hot spot” for WiFi by finding various FON related signals.

Time Warner Cable customers are invited to join the FON movement! The official press release is below. I want to thank the team at Time Warner Cable for all of their support.

MADRID, Spain — April 23, 2007 — FON today announced a partnership with Time Warner Cable which allows Time Warner Cable broadband subscribers to access the world’s largest and fastest-growing WiFi network. The partnership specifically allows Time Warner Cable subscribers to become FON community members and create FON access points via their home or business broadband connection. Furthermore, the same subscribers would enjoy free WiFi access around the world, wherever FON has partner ISPs.

With nearly 60,000 FON community members in the U.S. alone, FON is the largest WiFi network in the United States. Hotspot providers are FON community members (called Foneros) who share their unused bandwidth via a FON router in exchange for free WiFi access when roaming through any other FON access point. Through this partnership, Time Warner Cable subscribers will have the opportunity to be members of the FON community and enjoy free unlimited WiFi access at any of FON’s partner ISP WiFi hotspots.

Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that currently operates in 33 states, with 13.4 million basic cable subscribers and 6.6 million residential high-speed data subscribers. By partnering with FON, Time Warner Cable subscribers will benefit from being able to use next generation WiFi devices such as WiFi phones, game consoles and MP3 players, both inside and outside the home.

La Fonera router is secure out-of-the-box and offers two distinct WiFi channels. One channel is for the exclusive use of its owner; the second channel is shared with other Foneros. The La Fonera increases security through an encrypted private network and Foneros decide how much bandwidth to share. Public users cannot access the private network and there is no anonymous usage.

“We are pleased to welcome Time Warner Cable subscribers to the global FON community,” said Joanna Rees, CEO of FON U.S. “Success for FON depends on extending Internet access to our user bases outside the home or office without requiring individuals to rely on costly and problematic remote access solutions.”

It’s in Japanese…but nevertheless a good demonstration