Broadband in Germany: promoting fiber optics

German technology is symbol of reliability, quality, innovation and high technology. We analyze the Broadband Society in Germany in collaboration with Natalie Barresi, from UPF. As it refers to high-speed internet broadband, Germany is certainly at the head of the group, right? Wrong, actually Germany scrambles to merely cover large cities with broadband and has consistently missed the dates agreed by both government and telecom companies to build a digital infrastructure that matches their European neighbors’. 

According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, a research center composed of the world’s most developed economies, Germany’s adoption of fiber-optic cable stands at just 1.8 percent of Internet users, putting it fifth from the bottom in the list of the OECD’s 35 members. In contrast both Japan and South Korea have more than 70 percent of subscribers on super-fast fiber-optic cable.

Broadband in Guatemala: new challenges to advance

The digital era has made broadband a global necessity, yet, many countries are still struggling to cope with this technology. We analyze the case of Guatemala in collaboration with Natalia Gámez, from UPF. The Latin American case is very useful to show the universalization of broadband everywhere, taking in consideration applications like e-commerce and uses in rural and sustainable tourism.

In the framework of the Broadband Society, Guatemala is a country in which the political and economic condition of the same highly influences and limits the telecommunication system of the country, as in many other third world countries. In CECABLE we are collaborating with Latin American research centers to improve communication and telecommunications.

The effects of broadband in music

In recent years, broadband has become an essential tool to transmit data from one place to another. Multiple disciplines have been positively affected by this phenomenon. One example is music industry, which has suffered the consequences of the constant progresses in information and communication technologies (ICT) and Broadband Society. These progresses have been included in all the phases: from the production of the music to the distribution of these contents. We analyze it with Roger Argemí Tutusaus, from UPF.

Regarding to the creation of the songs, the situation has significantly improved since the last century. Editorial companies are the ones in which the authors write songs after the major labels request them hits for their artists. The work of editorial companies is to manage the author rights, strongly associated to the intellectual property and copyright. When authors write songs, they create from different places in the world at the same time. This requires a good connection to the Internet, in order to share large files and to have them mixed and mastered before the deadline. In fact, files are usually uploaded in a WAV format, which means a lot of storage.

Key factors for the Spanish broadband

In the context of the Broadband Society and the Internet access, broadband encloses any high-speed Internet access that is always on and faster than dial-up access over traditional analogue or ISDN PSTN services. We analyze it in collaboration with Clàudia Llena.

According to the the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) made by the European Commission on May 2018, the broadband in Spain is very expensive compared to the rest of the countries in the EU. In fact, in 21 countries of the 28 that form the EU, it is cheaper than in Spain to have internet connection. It affects rural and sustainable tourism.

Agraïment per l'èxit de les XXIV Jornades del Cable i la Banda Ampla a Catalunya

Moltes gràcies a totes i a tots! Hem gaudit d'unes XXIV Jornades del Cable i la Banda Ampla a Catalunya boniques, intenses, apassionades, amb una espectacular participació de públic i uns continguts capdavanters. El networking empresarial ha estat constant, i hem pogut llançar idees per aconseguir la universalització de la connectivitat i fórmules creatives per a l'HbbTV

Us adjunto un dels nombrosos impactes mediàtics assolits. De fet, tant en mitjans de comunicación com en xarxes socials hem aconseguit un moviment enorme. Estem contentíssims. Ja comencem a preparar el màgic repte de les XXV Jornades del Cable i la Banda Ampla a Catalunya-2020. Seran 25 anys i ho celebrarem d'allò més!

El HbbTV cataliza las XXIV Jornadas del Cable y la Banda Ancha en Cataluña

¡En pocos días ya llegan! Sí, el 9 y 10 de abril el HbbTV (Hybrid broadcast broadband TV), el cable y la banda ancha gobernarán el debate científico de las XXIV Jornadas del Cable y la Banda Ancha en Cataluña-2019, organizadas por el Centro de Estudios sobre el Cable (CECABLE), Blanquerna-UniversitatRamon Llull (incluyendo al grupo de investigación INTADTV) Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros Técnicos de Telecomunicación de Cataluña (COETTC) y Acotec (Asociación Catalana de Operadores de Telecomunicaciones por Cable) en el Auditorio Blanquerna de la Universidad Ramon Llull, en el centro de Barcelona. 

El HbbTV refleja la necesidad de un flujo de banda ancha generoso y, a poder ser, garantizado. La Sociedad de la Banda Ancha y el Cloud Journalism se sintetizan en este estándar interactivo que se está expandiendo internacionalmente y que concede el control a las cadenas de televisión, en contraste con un Smart TV en manos de los fabricantes.

Broadband of Badalona: the arrival of the FTTH

In the next post of the blog, we will expose the reality of broadband in Badalona, thanks to the study conducted by Indira Caballero, from UPF. Nowadays, broadband has become a reality in Barcelona due to technological advances. Many municipalities have access to different internet networks to download information and create content, but not all of them carry out the same telecommunication plans. In the developing article we will analyse the implementation of broadband in the town of Badalona, belonging to the district of Barcelonès. 

To begin with, it is essential to define the concept of FTTH (Fiber To The Home). The telecommunications technology consists of the use of fiber optic cabling and optical distribution systems for the provision of Triple Play services (Internet, Telephony and Television) to households, businesses and companies. In addition, FTTH technology allows surfing the Internet to more than 2 Gbps. 

The broadband and tourism in Girona

Nowadays we live in the Broadband Society, in the kingdom of information. This means that all the structure and social, economic, political and culture relations are based in the implantation of new technologies of information and communication (ICT). The municipalities receive the advantages of broadband, like Girona with its tourism, analyzed with Clara Mendoza Sanz, from UPF. 

Broadband takes an important place in this connected world of the XXI century, and we can even talk about the concept of the broadband society. Our generation is constantly looking for an instant access to a wide variety of information and communication wherever we are: when we travel, in the streets or at home. It has become our religion, like tourism. Tourism, broadband and social media, always together.

Broadband snapshot of Italy: impacts in rural and sustainable tourism

We will analyze the Italian broadband in collaboration with Filippo Picerno. Italy, in which rural and sustainable tourism is essential, is linked to Internet and the fist steps of the Broadband Society since 30 April 1986 when the first “ping” message was sended with a computer in Pennsylvania to the Cnuce (“Centro nazionale per il Calcolo Elettronico”) researchers in Pisa, Italy is the fourth country in the world linked to Internet. 

Afterwards the World Wide Web (WWW) birth by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991, in Italy was founded an organization called GARR (“Gruppo per l’Armonizzazione delle Reti deal Ricerca”), its work is to link the major universities and research centers of the country. 

Broadband evolution: the case of Gavà

The telecommunication world has been constantly changing during the last years thanks to all the technological advances that have been appearing in our Broadband Society. Because of that, all the network infrastructures needed to improve to be as actualized as the digital world, and also to have the possibility to offer the best and fastest service. So, all these developments need more bandwidth, especially rural tourism, to let the user be able to have access to these new applications and contents, with less download times and more appropriate costs. 

This is the reason why the broadband development became one of the main purposes of many countries in the world, such as has happened in Spain. The country connected to the Internet for the first time on 1990 and since that moment, theinformation technologies have been constantly evolving and improving. In the present article we analyze, with Laia Calaf Navarro from UPF, the broadband evolution in the concrete case of Gavà, one of the biggest towns from the Baix Llobregat county.