BT Openreach to target MDU for FTTP

BT Openreach is targeting multiple domicile units (i.e. blocks of flats) for it fiber-to-the-premises service.

It has targeted 1,000 MDUs in the footprint of it's rollout area. Customers can expect speeds now of 100Mb/s with 300Mb/s in the near future.

Currently residents of Canary Wharf are being asked if they wish to participate in the trial.

UN Adaptation Private Sector Initiative Database

A new online database called The Adaptation Private Sector Initiative Database recently launched by the United Nations will showcase successful strategies that businesses and communities are using to adapt to climate change while simultaneously increasing their profits and using their resources more efficiently.

The database, which can be accessed through the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) website, features more than 100 examples from companies such as Coca-Cola, Levi’s, Microsoft and Starbucks, which share the details of their business-friendly adaptation practices.

“By showcasing private sector adaptation success stories, we intend to help both communities and businesses become more climate-resilient and to put the benefits and business sense of adaptation firmly on the agenda of the private sector,” said UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres, speaking from the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“Climate risks which affect communities around the world are always also business risks,” she added.

Examples of best practices in the database include efforts to make drinking water clean and safe in developing countries and efforts to improve the yield of coffee beans in regions that are particularly vulnerable to climate change. They also cover activities such as the development of climate-friendly goods and services and climate proofing the supply chains of companies.

Ms. Figueres underscored the importance of businesses and governments implementing measures to prepare for natural disasters such as massive floods, as these have a big impact on the operation of local and global businesses.

“The initiatives detailed in the database both show how the private sector can secure early advantages by adapting without waiting for absolute policy certainty at the international level, and how governments and the private sector can work together to respond to climate change now. Public-private partnerships and cooperation with a wide range of stakeholders is becoming increasingly important to ensure successful implementation,” Ms. Figueres said.

In addition to the new database, the UNFCCC secretariat’s Momentum for Change Initiative provides a platform to showcase successful public-private partnerships at all levels that have led to positive changes for both people and the climate.

The database is part of a wider effort by UNFCCC following the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, to prioritize adaptation efforts as well as mitigation of natural disasters.

Cisco Unified Data Center

Cisco have produced a very fluffy (or should that be 'cloudy') video about their unified data centre services.

You can watch the video here

Press TV license revoked

Press TV who broadcast on Sky's platform have previously been fined £100,000 for transmitting an interview with Newsweek and Channel 4 journalist Maziar Bahari while in an Iranian prison while under duress.

Press TV are based in London, though they have stated that editorial control is actually from Press TV International (based in Tehran). Press TV were given time to remedy the situation (or correctly license Press TV International) but have not done so, thus Ofcom are revoking their license.

Press TV will be removed from the Sky platform by the end of Jan 20th 2012.

Press TV has also stated that is unwilling or unable to pay the fine of £100,000 and Ofcom will peruse this as a separate matter.

TI adds WiFi to embedded microcontroller

Texas Instruments has added WiFi to its SimpleLink CC3000 wireless processor, using only 0.5% of normal resources it also only needs 6KB of Flash, 3KB of RAM.

This follows Redpine and STMicro who have also added WiFi to various micro controllers.

These enhancements are moving towards the 'internet of things' where every device is connected from your toaster/washing machine and TV's and tradition home automation units.

One major advantage is there is NO operating system on the chip so it's very efficient.

Book Review: President Clinton's Back To Work: Why We Need Smart Government For A Strong Economy

In President Bill Clinton's latest book, Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government For a Strong Economy, he gives us his views on the challenges facing the United States today and why smart government and smart business matter—presenting his ideas on restoring economic growth, job creation, financial responsibility, resolving the mortgage crisis, and pursuing a strategy to get us "back in the future business.” 

He explains how we got into the current economic crisis, and offers specific recommendations on how we can put people back to work, increase bank lending and corporate investment, double our exports, restore our manufacturing base, and create new businesses. He also discusses green technology, saying that changing the way we produce and consume energy is the strategy most likely to spark a fast-growing economy while enhancing national security.

President Bill Clinton shares generous amounts of data for our background. Two graphs from the New York Times from the book are also included in this article for reference: The Debt Crisis & Budget Projections and Realities.
He also includes graphs showing the US ranks 24th in World Economic Forum Quality of Infrastructure; the US spends only 1.7% of GDP on infrastructure, compared with 4% for Canada and 9% for China. Another graph shows the US ranking 15th in Information Technology & Innovation Foundation broadband rankings, with South Korea being #1.
As a person who has created and run many international business initiatives, one of the most important things is to educate people on the facts so they can make the right business decisions.

Have you ever been part of a business or organization where people were making business decisions on the wrong or incorrect facts? I've seen this many times and worked to correct it, but sometimes you can't always blame that person. As President Clinton states in his book, people are very busy running their own lives and trying to make ends meet - this is the same in Business and in Politics.

I say that it's up to us as good business and societal leaders to gain the correct facts and help inform and help the Organization/Country as a whole make better decisions.
It's important to look at the facts and not just the politics, and the Political Party doesn't matter. Every single person is important and can provide a positive impact on our society.
After you see the facts (not only political opinion), you will understand the circumstances much better in order to get closer to identifying the real problems and opportunities.....Bill Clinton mentions several opportunities and suggestions and some are in the first Infographic in this article.

He has a full Chapter called 'How Do We Get Back to the Future Business' and details this in step-by-step- format along with some history. Some of these include: how we need to 'end the mortgage mess as quickly as possible', 'let people with government-guaranteed mortgages who aren't delinquent refinance their mortgages at the current low rate', 'the Federal Reserve should give the banks an incentive to lend', 'give Corporations incentives to bring more money back to the United States', 'let Companies repatriate the cash now with no tax liability if it's reinvested to create new jobs', 'pass Obama's payroll tax cuts', 'build a 21st century infrastructure' , 'reinstate the full tax credit for new green technology jobs', 'finish the smart grid', increase geothermal energy', 'keep tax credits for buying electric and hybrid vehicles', 'concentrate on high-end manufacturing and getting smaller companies into exports', and 'insource jobs we've been outsourcing'.

I highly recommend you read President Bill Clinton's Back To Work Book, especially now when US and International Voters need to have as much knowledge as possible in order to make the right voting decisions and get people back to work. I agree with President Bill Clinton that we can have both smart government and smart business working in unison. 


What are you doing to get people back to work?
As a business owner, I have done several things including:
- A Jobs Board on this Clean Tech & Green Business News Website
- Partnering with Several Business Owners to Sell Their Products & Services via Green Star Solution, Gratitude Gourmet, and California Luxury.

Share the ways you're trying to get people back to work by:
- Commenting on this Blog Post, 
- Tweeting me @MaryVincent, 
- And letting us know on Facebook.

Other Clean Tech and Green Business News Articles Featuring Bill Clinton:
1. Bill Clinton's Earth Day Speech at Fortune Brainstorm Green 2009
2. Bill Clinton speaking on Climate Change at Dreamforce 2010
3. Bill Clinton speaking on Climate Change at RSA San Francisco 2011

HomePlug Powerline Alliance release AV2 specification

The Hompeplug Powerline Alliance have released the Homeplug AV2 specification allowing for HD video streams to be delivered across standard in home/premise mains wiring. The AV2 specification is backwards compatible with the existing Homeplug AV standard (also known as IEEE 1901).

The new standard was developed by the HomePlug AV Technical Working Group which is made up of representatives of Broadcom, devolo, France Telecom, Marvell, Qualcomm Atheros, Ralink, Sony, SPiDCOM Technologies and STMicroelectronics

The AV2 standard supports a Gigabit/s physical link and can support multiple input/output links between units.

The current AV500 standard supports 500Mb/s links and units are now generally available. Many manufacturers have moved to smaller chip fabrication processes (i.e. 45nm or smaller) and so the Powerline chip are smaller in size allowing smaller end-user products and also for the chips to be embedded in more devices such as consumer audio/video products.

O2 to WiFi London Olympics

O2 has announced plans to put in place 13,000 WiFi hotspots across London and out to Stratford to cover the London Olympics in 2012.

The company is making deals with local councils to use street furniture (such as lamp posts) to provide the coverage. It's hoping to offer the largest free WiFi network in London, competing with other operators such as The Cloud (bought by Sky) and BT Openzone who operate their own network and have hotspots in every Starbucks store.

The network will require users to go to a landing page which will have localised advertising which O2 hope to recover costs through.

O2 will also use the network to off-load data traffic from their mobile network. Though WiFi can be used to cover large areas, it's not really designed for that purpose and can suffer from congestion when many WiFi networks co-exist.

Broadcom debuts 802.11ac Gigabit chips

Broadcom has announced several chips based on the new 802.11ac specification which supports Gigabit over wireless.

The BCM4360 supports the PCIe interface and wireless speeds of 1.3Gb.s using 3 wireless streams and is suited for access points, routers and PCs.

The BCM4352 (PCIe) and BCM43526 (USB) support 867Mb/s using 2 streams and the BCM43516 (USB) supports 433Mb/s using a single stream. The USB chips are designed to go into mobile devices and things like connected TVs.

802.11ac uses the 5GHz band and 80GHz channels.

There are likely to be several other 802.11ac announcements at CES.

There's also bound to be lots of announcements for 802.11ad which uses the license exempt 60GHz band.

Full (Mind)speed ahead

Mindspeed has acquired Picochip the Bath based company who produce SoC designs for 3G femtocells and LTE cells using software defined radios.

The deal is worth up to $76.8m ($27.8m in cash now with another $25m is the company meets various milestones by 2013). This valuation may seem low as the company has been the leader in 3G femtocell reference designs, but they are coming under heavy competition from big players such as Broadcom and Qualcomm.

All 150 employees should survive the transition to the new owners.