Thursday, September 07, 2006

The new new: super-high-definition-TV

Next Generation Networks spoke recently with Hartwig Tauber, president of the FTTH Council Europe, the organisation promoting fibre-to-the-home deployment in Europe. He had just given a talk in Japan about FTTH in Europe.

What would interest Japan about FTTH in Europe, he was asked politely, given Japan’s lead in FTTH (5.4 m subscribers by Q1, 2006 compared to some 0.75 m in Europe). They are very interested in the open access model, he said, referring to the public-private business model enabling municipalities such as Amsterdam and Vienna to deploy fibre.

What impressions did he come away with? They are already talking about super-high-definition-TV, the next step on from HDTV. “Using the best compression, it requires 40Mbit/s per channel,” he said ruefully.
  • See the most recent Total Telecom Roundtable on optical access use in Europe which included FTTH Council Europe board member, Rami Houbby.

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