Broadband in France has been getting progressively better. About a year ago services offering 8mbps ADSL were being offered by the various DSL providers. This year this has now been upgraded to ADSL2 at 20Mbps or so (I get about 19Mbps according to my ADSL router).

But that is nothing, Infoworld reports that in Paris France Telecom is trialing a service which is 100 times faster:

Paris homes test very high-speed broadband
France Télécom lays fiber to 100 homes in trial of connection with a maximum data rate of 2.5Gbps

…For €70 ($88) a month, customers participating in the fiber trial get Internet access, digital television broadcasts, and unlimited telephone calls over an optical connection with a theoretical maximum data rate of 2.5Gbps downstream, and 1.2Gbps upstream. The price includes installation and activation of equipment at the customers’ homes, and the first two months’ access are free.

During the trial, France Télécom also plans to offer interactive television services and videoconferencing, and will test new content-sharing and gaming services, it said.

This is one of the first real tests of Passive Optical Networking, a technology which I would have thought was more relevant to businesses than home usage, since the bandwidth offered seems excessive for current applications.

Alp Flix is a place in the Swiss mountains (Canton Graubünden) where you can enjoy nature and also get first hand information on bio diversity. The scientific project on Alp Flix is sponsored by the GEO Magazine, Ricola and local museums. Some background information on why they started this project:

In 2000 scientists collected during one of the “GEO days” within 24 hours 2092 different species; among them one scientific sensation. An up to that date unknown fly with the name “Rhexoza”. So far this species has only been found in North America.

I was just wondering what airline the fly took when traveling over the Atlantic as a stowaway.

The debate has been on for quite some time in Europe whether companies that announce record profits are morally allowed to fire people using the argument that this is required to also stay competitive in the future. Further, we have seen many annoucements from a range of tech companies who intend to reduce their workforces.

This seems firstly a more European than American discussion (unions are in the US as successful as Amtrak) and then people are less loyal to companies anyway so are used to having to change and move around.

The debate in Europe has two sides: One (the management’s) brings together many - viable - arguments why, in order to stay competitive and save other jobs in the near future, it is necessary to slim down the company. The other group (the churches have found fertile ground here too) is saying that there is an ethical, moralistic part to being a manager too which includes feeling responsible for conserving jobs as well and not foremost to look at delivering results to please investors (owners).

I personally think the debate lacks one crucial element. Ownership. Not only stock ownership but employee stock option participation is something that is not found a lot in European companies. If at all then only at top management levels. There are many smaller companies I know of that have profit participation as an element to incentivize and most importantly to make employees feel like owners. That of course causes total panic among the unions because if suddenly everyone feels as “owner” there is nobody left that they can represent. To me this has to be the model for the future, though. There seems nothing more motivating than being partly in the boat and do the things that belong to you. What role unions will play then has to be seen of course, most likely they have to look for a new job then too where they can become owners as well.

Now I just came across a book that could have been only written by an American, making fun - partly - of, well, firing, and is also trying to look at the bright side of it. Here the chapters of the book:

• The job so terrible you can only hope to be fired
• The firing you didn’t see coming
• The time you deserved to be fired
• The time getting fired leads you to something better
• The time you had to fire yourself

German startup Who-R-You simply connects your e-mail address with a (your) picture.

As Techcrunch points out:

Who-R-You may be online dating in its simplist form, as people peruse the pictures and contact users that they find attractive.

What you can also see is how many people have clicked on a picture. Now if you want to play a little fun game with your friends, why not ask them whom they think got the most clicks - and the least.

I like the fact that it is simple, but of course that will at the same time mean it is very easy to copy. Let’s hope that they are also fast in getting the buzz going before some US sites roll over them.

• Eager to get some PR going just before the long summer break, the EU was on a roll and had sent shivers up to the top of Microsoft, the mobile operators in Europe and then finally Sony/BMG (although they remained quite cool about it - still). The latter came not from the European Commission but the European court who disagreed with a former approval of the Sony-Bertelsmann music label merger. Warner and EMI are now also getting nervous I assume.
• Net neutrality discussion is quite heated in the US currently. Two groups are in the ring: Network operators (phone, cable) vs. Internet players (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo). The Center for Democracy & Technology offers some middle way trying to preserve the openess of the Internet (without it we would have never seen that innovation) but also creating space for premium networks for which one has to pay to give an incentive for investments.
• The FAZ had an interesting article on the huge popularity of the Chinese blogosphere. Once more this was also triggered by sexual content when a journalist (alias “Muzimei”) published her news. The first blog server four years ago was named “Bokee” which means “smart person”. That is a good name since most bloggers have a higher education: 175 of the most prominent bloggers on the top 10 blog servers have occupations in IT, journalism, are students or stars from the show business. Most come from the largest cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Canton or Shenzhen. 48% talk about personal opinions on various topics, 24% on their day-to-day life, 17% give generic information, 11% show sexual content. The top ten blog servers are: Bokee, Donews, Anyp, Blogcn, Blogdriver, Tianyablog, Blogbus, Blog.csdn.net, Yculblog and Yourblog. Not surprisingly, there is no political content to be found and most bloggers keep their really hot news for sale to the media rather than breaking it for free on their blog site. This also reflects the business sense of the Chinese.
• i,cringley had written a very nice article on “WiMAX isn’t what it seems, but then nothing else is, either” describing how the ISPs oversell and underdeliver (provision their wholesale networks with just 1% of what marketing claims). Now this week he gave some insight into what Skype’s P2P network is all about and that they live off other people’s computer resources, using them as nodes whenever (increasingly the case) no direct link between IP addresses can be established due to NAT or firewalls hiding them. Very clever way to build a “big” network with hardly any money. I wonder if eBay understood that they were buying a wooden cottage that has to be torn down first before one can build more space on top.

Today the EU commission announced for the first time ever in its 49 year history a decision to punish a company for illegal competitive behaviour. The total amount is 290 million EUR, which means 3 million EUR daily from July 31 on, that Microsoft will have to pay.

This comes at the same day when the EU also announced that it wants to cut the international wireless roaming charges in Europe by 70%.

In both cases female commissoners from the Netherlands are pushing the cases and give the accused a hard time.

• Viviane Reding, Information Society and Media Commissoner, against the European wireless operators
• Neelie Kroes, Competition, against Microsoft

In Microsoft’s case there is practically no time left anymore so it is to be expected that the charges will indeed become effective.

In the other case it will take until mid-2007 before a final vote will become legal. So some more time for them to do it better than Microsoft and to not try to speculate that the bureaucracy of the EU could save them.

In case you have read this part recently you might have noticed that lots of the comments are from US blog sites. This is not surprising for two reasons. First blogging is still in its infancy outside of the US - mostly - and secondly - apart from wireless and telecommunications - there ’s simply more news and action in the US. Lastly it is also the number one place for starting tech hype - which often turns into something real, as we know, but also has to be reviewed critically.

• BusinessWeek had a contribution (So Much Fanfare, So Few Hits) on the hype around Google and showed some - not so impressive - rankings of some of its new products. The company makes still 99% of its revenue with ad sales, and otherwise has only two number 2 (by market share) products with GoogleEarth and GoogleNews. Most folks don’t know that! I think also acquisitions will be sooner than later inevitable for them.
• Good Morning Silicon Valley quotes someone wanting to “kill” accused spyware distributor Direct Revenue. What I found more noteworthy/alarming though is one other comment to which I would like to add the question: Who sponsors those guys actually? Here the comment:
• “Well spyware creates lots of jobs for individuals designing software to detect, remove, and block its effects. Think of the unemployment in the software security field if there was/were no spam, phishing, viruses, and other impediments to a secure, comfortable on-line experience. I want more Nigerian scam letters! adios, charlie”
• Engadget’s review of the new Sharp W-ZERO3[es]/WS007SH looks exactly like the missing parts of Nokia’s 770 but then - unfortunately - misses WLAN and BT itself. Now let’s assume that the company’s market intelligence departments have spotted this too and we will soon see a true killer device.
• Clearwire raised 900 million USD from Intel and Motorola to build WiMAX services. As Katie Fehrenbacher comments, this is actually another sign that large tech IPOs (due to Vonage e.g.) are currently out in the US.
• Easy Mobile is shutting down its Dutch operations in August after only 9 months in operation. This shows that the MVNO business is becoming pretty tough even for celebrity entrepreneurs such as Stelios Haji-Ioannou (EasyJet). In the Netherlands alone there are 40 such services as Reuters reports, which makes the MVNO dilemma pretty clear. On the other hand there will be in a few years a 25% market share in Europe for MVNOs as one analyst reports. Question is who will be first to start collecting (buying) all those MVNOs?
• How busy VCs can be demonstrates Jurvetson. I had seen beautiful pictures from his bicyle trip in France just recently. Now just a few days after landing in SFO again you find pictures from British Columbia (Vancouver), Colorado (Aspen), Nevada. Not sure in which order really but I assume he must have at least one double to be able to do all that travelling…
• “Sex sells” must have been Guy Kawasaki’s thought when he warned on his blog that an interview with sex toy maker Mypleasure.com is coming up so that everyone was able to tune in. Not sure if it worked though. I still have to read it but OK might actually have no time since there are too many - better - topics out there to read. His own statistics also showed different topics in the top ten (by # of links) such as (419) The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint, (250) The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs, (155) The Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists, (135) The Art of Bootstrapping. I assume the sex trick works better if you show it in multimedia Guy!

Cnet and the Inquirer both report that Intel is making a serious investment in WiMAX deployment by funding Clearwire to the tune of $600 Million. Motorola, which is purchasing the equipment manufacturing part of Clearwire, appears to have contributed most of the rest of the $900 Million total financing round. The CNET article gives some interesting additional background:

WiMax is a packet-based technology that transmits data faster than current cellular technology and over longer distances than Wi-Fi gear. Although commercial WiMax offerings are essentially nonexistent these days, 175 trials have been kicked off around the world. Ultimately, WiMax will connect computers to the Internet as well as carry cellular and voice traffic.

The question hanging over WiMax is, who will pay for the equipment to create WiMax networks? Clearwire’s $900 million infusion could ease some of that concern.

As an example of the 175 trials there is this announcement about a trial in Turkey.

One thing I find interesting is the pricing of the business model. CNET reports that Clearwire’s offering is in the $30-$40/month range for service up to 1.5Mbps down/256kpbs up. I am sure these rates and prices are competitive in the US, but they look a little steep compared to France. Last year I paid €31/month for 8Mbps down/512kps up and just last week I upgraded to 20Mbps down/1Mbps up for the same price (prices in both countries include the $5/month modem “rental” charge) and, while I have yet to verify really getting 20Mbps, I did definitely get over 10Mbps this morning during a sustained download.

Child protection is now a huge issue for social networking sites. I’d call it a hot potato, except I doubt it’s going to cool down and it has a long history already (chat rooms, etc).

LunarStorm, Sweden’s No. 1 social networking site, has spent 10 years working on the isssue. The UK offshoot’s CEO, Matt Colebourne, spoke to Pocket-lint recently about how it works.

LunarStorm operates a three-pronged approach on its site to monitor its users continuously.

Full-time staff form the second layer of offense who monitor security and privacy continually. They’re backed up by smart, proprietary software that flags and reports potentially dangerous behaviour to staff.

LunarStorm is also a founder member of OnComm, a collaborative project between the social network sites reporting deviant or strange behaviour to law enforcement agencies in order to track or build a case against predators.

If blog comments to BusinessWeek from 16 and 17 year olds on the theme are anything to go by, young users are generally not too bothered. This one was pretty typical:
“I think that it’s dumb that people blame Myspace for everything that’s going on with kids being kidnapped or whatever. It’s the kid’s choice to give this information to the person! I mean, come on.”

But it’s not the kind of comment to play well to parents, who probably mainly agree with Colebourne’s view “Children aren’t left unmonitored on a playground or in a school, so why should they be online?”

Politically, and in the longer term commercially, other sites that attract school-age kids will have to show that they are adopting best practice, so LunarStorm’s model is very likely to have a widespread influence - and that means publicity, which could also give the site a big boost in the younger market as their parents, or those who want to feel safer, hear about it.

It could well be that most kids are more safety-savvy online than adults, though. A story from KCBS radio (3.7.06):

San Jose, Calif. (KCBS) — San Jose Police are on the look out for the so-called “Craigslist Robber” who reportedly tracked down his victims by using the community website.

“He’s pretending to want to sell something or buy something from these folks. He’s arranging meetings with them at various spots in town in San Jose,” said San Jose Police spokesman Nick Muyo.

While on a business trip this week in Sweden for one of our customers, I was also able to stop by in Kista (pronounced: Schista), which is labeled as the Wireless Silicon Valley. Not long ago Guy Kawasaki provoked the non Silicon Valley tech startup community with a post titled “How to kick Silicon Valley’s Butt“.

Now I only by chance heard - just before the trip to Sweden - that Kista is giving itself this name. Probably European VCs know it well (I assume) but I doubt many VCs in the US have ever heard of it.

I was told Kista started with two blue chip companies who had set up their manufacturing facilities here: IBM and Ericsson. The latter still has an R&D group in Kista where they continue to develop the company’s biggest cash cow, a BTS. Kista’s tallest building is - after the bubble burst - fully occupied again, thanks to some Chinese company. ZTE moved into this highriser. I would think that this place will continue to grow and maybe one day be able to make a name by itself - even in the US.