For years, South Africans craved cheaper broadband, higher speeds and less restriction on data volumes. Now, with all the undersea communications cables beaching on our shores and Telkom's cap increases, the good news is that we're starting to get closer.
We are entering an integrated home browsing, communication and entertainment experience that can begin to compare with that of the world's more privileged Internet users. Suddenly, there is so much more to enjoy than just a couple of PCs in the home that are really just glorified media receptacles.
Tellumat Telecoms, the communications specialist in the Tellumat Group, is lining up to feed the broadband-enabled home revolution we only dreamed about a year ago. Bennie Langenhoven, managing executive of Tellumat Telecoms, says more equipment to further excite the broadband enthusiast is coming down the line.
“Already it is about so much more than telephony, videoconferencing and browsing,” he says of Tellumat's portfolios from European giants Sagem and Pirelli.
Langenhoven says many factors contribute to a fuller picture of the connected home:
* New telco services - instead of pure voice and data, future services will include content (video on demand, IPTV), applications and network services such as disaster recovery (DR). This will result in more converged devices combining computing, media storage, television and video players in one connected device.
* Alternative telco delivery models - hosting will grow in stature. This may relate to applications (personal computing), content (video, images and data) and services (DR and voice), which will have far-reaching significance for end-point devices, ranging from the PC and video screening device to home network infrastructure. In time, says Langenhoven, devices may devolve to low- or no-processing and even low-storage devices. Until then, the market will buy its own differentiated hardware, host its own applications and run its own network.
* A factor conspiring against dumb terminal-style endpoint devices is the advent of cloud computing. Referring to distributed, shared processing power (one user on the telco network can draw on the resources of all others, as needed), cloud computing is an ideal delivery model for telcos, which will simply orchestrate delivery of the correct amount of resources. “So, perhaps the fat-client PC will prevail,” notes Langenhoven. “In a sense it mimics one of the most attractive ideas of the Internet - it's resilience through distributed failover.”
So, what will the future home look like? Between Sagem and Pirelli, the following telco-bundled menu is available to users:
* An integrated home Internet gateway connecting the home to the Net, feeding broadband in via DSL, 3G, fibre to the home or other means;
* Multimedia endpoints fed by discreet broadband channels - IP radio, video-calling equipment (called media phones), IPTV and video-streaming set-top boxes;
* A home network based on WiFi or power line communications, allowing media to be streamed to ever more devices on the network, enabling activities like multi-player gaming;
* Femtocells (the cellular network embedded within the home gateway) for full convergence of home and mobile phones while in your home cell;
* Multi-mode WiFi-based phones with seamless handover between the home and cellular network.
* Energy management devices - belonging to the occupant or utility;
* Remote controlled home automation (security, climate control, access control, irrigation and, in the future, e-commerce integration); and
* Remote database integration, eg, remote healthcare delivery (hypertension or diabetes checks and uploads).
Although the biggest current demand is for basic picture-sharing, IPTV, and of course, Web browsing, Langenhoven says gaming and other more advanced services will come into their own in due course, including targeted advertising, based on location-based services.
In the final analysis, telcos and technology suppliers are challenged as much as users to get ready for this exciting revolution.
Share