Telecommunications

India Launches Edusat Satellite.

By Mike Hanlon

On the 21st September, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched a rocket in to space carrying a 1950 kg satellite dedicated to the cause of education, 'Edusat'. The rocket was launched from the country's only spaceport at Sriharikota and placed its payload on a designated orbit, 5000 km away minutes later.

EDUSAT is the first Indian satellite built exclusively for serving the educational sector. It is mainly intended to meet the demand for an interactive satellite based distance education system for the country. It strongly reflects India's commitment to use space technology for national development, especially for the development of the population in remote and rural locations. Read More

Airbus Completes First Mobile Phone Flight Trial.

By Mike Hanlon

On September 15, an Airbus A320 successfully completed the first in-flight trial of GSM mobile telephones aboard an airliner. The test flight, which took place out of Toulouse, is the first milestone in Airbus' plans to offer in-flight mobile telephony services to passengers by 2006.

GSM service, web browsing, email, and virtual private network (VPN) were all flight tested as was Intranet from onboard servers and PDA's for crew use. In addition to this, wireless telemedicine, including a simulated emergency, demonstrated priority communication over other services. Read More

Nokia providing sporting coverage to mobile phones in US

By Mike Hanlon

Nokia has begun delivering live audio broadcasts, real time scoring and streaming video highlights from American National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) to mobile phones in America. The system requires a Nokia 6600 imaging phone and is the first of its type, offering a glimpse of live sports action in the future. Read More

Asia Pacific experiences International Bandwidth explosion

By Mike Hanlon

The Asia-Pacific region is witnessing an explosion of international Internet bandwidth. Capacity on Internet links connecting Asia-Pacific to the world have skyrocketed more than eightfold over the last two years from 8 to 65 gigabits (Gbit/s) by the end of 2001. International Internet capacity in the region now far exceeds conventional telephone capacity. Internet bandwidth refers to the capacity of the connection and is measured in bits per second (bit/s). Read More

Street communications system promises a connected future

By Mike Hanlon

September 5, 2003 Imagine living in a totally connected city where EVERY person has a high-speed broadband connection and an urban surveillance system provides police and emergency services with wide and immediate coverage. That's the reality of Mervyn Dobbins' NEXiPoster, the winner of the "Best Idea Product Development Stage" category at this week's Yellowpages Business Ideas Grants 2003, and it has far reaching ramifications. NEXiPoster, is part of a system called cityNEX, a new age communication system which automatically provides the city and everyone in it with broadband access and provides public information such as bus timetables and commercial advertising via the large format electronic "NEXiposter" billboards in real-time. Read More