2008/08/14

Low power licence-exemption limits above 10GHz | Ofcom

Low power licence-exemption limits above 10GHz | Ofcom

Ofcom is proposing to increase the power limits of license-exempt systems above 10GHz.

Systems such as UWB (ultra wide band) can operate up to 10.6GHz on a license exempt basis, but they are limited in spectral mask. Power loss over distance increases as the frequency increases, so frequencies over 10GHz were not considered. Thus high power systems at high frequencies will have the same interference as low power system at low frequencies.

This new consultation proposes to increase the limits above 10GHz (on a non-interference non-protected basis) in-line with current spectral masks extrapolated at the higher frequencies.

This should allow new equipment to come on the market and very high transfer rates to be achieved.

The consultation closes on 31/10/08

Ofcom Website | 2.6GHz spectrum award update

Ofcom Website | 2.6GHz spectrum award update

Currently Ofcom are in dispute with T-Mobile and O2 who have taken Ofcom to court concerning the release of spectrum on the 2010MHz and 2.6GHz bands.

Ofcom was hoping to release the spectrum in July or August of 2008, due to the court case this was delayed until September or October. As the court case has not been resolved Ofcom have now postponed these dates too, though they are trying to get the court case expedited as they believe it is in the public interest to release the spectrum for auction as soon as possible.

Initially these bands were reserved for IMT 2000 (3G) use while Ofcom want to release them on a technology neutral basis as many services could operate in these bands such as WiMAX.

2008/08/11

Euro Tech News now Speech enabled

This blog has now been speech enabled using the Talklets accessibility software-as-a-service from Textic Ltd.

Talklets comes in various flavours, the simplest being a toolbar which floats at the bottom of the browser - this involves installing 1 line of Javascript code on every web page.

There are also more complicated versions, from a simple toolbox like the one on this site, to a toolbox which contains all the Talklets features.

Talklets allows sites to meet their Disability Discrimination legislation requirements for website owners as it is the onus of the website owner to make their site compliant without the user having to install any software or tools. Talklets also has other benefits for website owners as users tend to stay around longer while listening to text being read. E-Commerce sites also see revenue increases as users go through to purchase. The are indirect savings as well as users tend to use on-line help rather than go to call centres if the help is read to them.

As the system is SaaS any enhancements made to the server side are automatically made available to the website owner and their users.

There is a free 14 day trial of the software available from Textic's site.