Hudson plane crash drama unfolds on broadband

Broadband bloggers document US Airways emergency landing in Hudson River in real time

Plane crashes, fortunately, are rare events. But when such a drama unfolds, initial reports generally flash up on major news stations.

But on January 15th 2009, as a seemingly-doomed US Airways plane glided down from 3000 feet towards the Hudson River in New York, shocked eyewitnesses were seconds away from reporting events via broadband.



When the pilot of the Airbus 320, Capt. Sullenberger, landed in the river’s icy-cold water, stunned passengers watching from nearby ferries, some with access to mobile broadband, immediately started typing broadband blog reports of what they were seeing.

It was only minutes before the news and drama was all over microblogging broadband site twitter. At that point, broadband bloggers had no idea if there were any survivors. The Guardian reports New Yorker Janis Krum’s eyewitness account from the broadband site: “There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.” Krum also used broadband to upload a photo of the plane floating in the river.

Soon after, other broadband ‘twitterers’ picked up the first-hand accounts and a domino-effect directed other broadband friends to them.

Although broadband blog reports are not strictly ‘journalistic’, bystander accounts may convey the real-time shock, relief and emotion more effectively than a delayed news story from a reporter. It also enables bulletins to be virtually instantaneous – transporting a cameraman and journalist to an incident scene can delay reporting.

The ‘Miracle of The Hudson’, in which all 115 passengers survived, is a fine example of broadband taking the conveyance of news to a more immediate and accessible level.

Good Week Bad Week 19 December 2008

It’s been a Good Week for...

Broadband news coverage – Reporting of one of the most dramatic good news stories of the week was significantly enhanced by broadband. As a US Airways plane crash-landed into New York’s Hudson River, it was only a matter of minutes before eye witnesses were posting images and reports over broadband on microblogging sites such as twitter. All passengers, remarkably, survived.

Digital music industry – A hefty 95% of broadband music downloads are still illegal, but the digital music industry seems to be flying in the face of adversity. Profits in the sector are up - a rather impressive 25% - for 2008. The music piracy issue is one which the government, broadband providers and the British Music Industry has been ruminating over for some time now. Until a solution is found, music piracy on broadband lives on.

Carphone Warehouse customers – Broadband and phone users could benefit from a competitive New Year package from the Carphone Warehouse. The TalkTalk deal offers broadband up to 8Mbps with 40GB of download limit and a free router. Free evening and weekend calls are also included until 2010. The 18-month deal costs £10.50 per month initially, rising to £16.99 after 12 months.

It’s been a Bad Week for...

Broadband kids – Children’s lives are being branded ‘toxic’. Childhood, it seems, is no longer about climbing trees and building dens, but more about logging onto broadband - be it over a bowl of Coco Pops or tucked up in bed. Today’s broadband kids are also becoming less interested in reading for pleasure, as twittering takes over.

Broadband market – It was only a matter of time before the broadband sector was knocked sideways by the economic downturn. Unfortunately, the latest data from PointTopic confirms this. The study reveals the UK added only 200,000 broadband lines in the last quarter of 2008 - less than half the predicated forecast for the period.

The Army – While the row over Prince Harry and his alleged ‘racist’ comments has yet to go cold, fresh reports of racial tension have emerged in the Army. The Guardian discovered several ‘extreme and offensive’ comments on the broadband networking site posted by broadband users claiming to be serving soldiers. The Ministry Of Defence has now launched an inquiry.

Science-Fiction fans overpower broadband internet

Broadband internet has always been a good home to science-fiction fans. From websites celebrating long-dead series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer to message boards and broadband forum communities speculating on the latest gossip and rumours, fans of science-fiction have carved out a little piece of broadband internet all for themselves.

The power of science-fiction was cast into the public eye recently with the unveiling of the 11th Doctor Who. As 6.9 million Dr Who fans tuned into their televisions to see the BBC announce Matt Smith as the latest Doctor, fans of the Timelord’s adventures flocked onto their broadband connections eager to air their opinions on message boards and broadband internet forums.

Such was the level of broadband traffic to the Dr Who fan site, Dr Who Online, the site crashed within minutes of the announcement. Sadly, this prevented thousands of Sci-Fi fans from venting their opinions down their broadband line.

While the choice of the new Doctor was always going to cause controversy, the level of interest from broadband surfers surely should raise awareness of science-fiction’s popularity over broadband internet. Indeed, while other websites have crashed in the past because of an overload of broadband connections – the 1901 census website crashed in its first hour of release because of excessive broadband use – the failure of such a niche website due to multiple broadband connections should raise eyebrows.

As a genre, science-fiction is considered to be on the fringes of popular culture; to see a website crash because of a broadband overload shows that this couldn’t be more wrong. As more science-fiction fans gain access to super-fast broadband internet, we can all expect to see more websites undergoing server difficulties on the day of big sci-fi news. Maybe this is a job for the new Doctor after all.

Strictly Come Dancing meets Casualty in new broadband operation

GPs to face the judges on NHS broadband bulletin board

Being a doctor is a pretty tough job. Not only are you concerned with saving lives and ensuring people’s general wellbeing, there’s also waiting lists, paperwork and untold bureaucracy to deal with. Now, GPs could find themselves under added pressure, after the public are given the chance to “slander or praise” them on a new broadband site.

It’s all the idea of government health minister, Ben Bradshaw, who has cited his intention to make the NHS Choices broadband site a means for patients with broadband access to write comments about their doctor’s surgery.

His objective is to utilise broadband and patient power to improve the primary care medical system in Britain. He hopes GPs will be driven to offer a better service as detrimental broadband reviews could push patients to seek registration at another medical practice. The aim is to invite comments over broadband on reception staff, the availability and speed of receiving an appointment, as well as medical professionals’ bedside manner.

Bradshaw told the Guardian he wants the NHS Choices broadband website to do for healthcare what Amazon has done for the book trade and Trip Adviser for the travel industry: providing positive and negative feedback - warts and all - from consumers on broadband.

The ‘rate or slate’ broadband idea was, perhaps unsurprisingly, met with criticism when presented to the British Medical Association.

Speaking to the Guardian, the chair of the BMA’s GPs committee, Laurence Buckman, said:

“A [broadband] site on which people can slander or praise irresponsibly is the wrong approach. Patients should be able to choose a doctor, but I don't think this is the way to do it. For example, if I don’t give antibiotics for a viral infection because I don’t think it is appropriate, the word will get out that I am a tough git. But making them happy is not what I am there for. I am there to make them healthy.”

Buckman said there would be a temptation for doctors to game the proposed broadband system. “If you want to survive as a GP, you will encourage patients to vote for you. It will be rather like Strictly Come Dancing.”

Despite the complaints of medics, officials have been told to have the appropriate software ready next year. And while GPs may soon find themselves in the firing line of Strictly-style barbed comments from disgruntled judges (aka patients), presumably they won’t have to take part in stuff like this...


Strictly Come Dancing star Rachel Stevens performs a perfect foxtrot.

Pulp Fiction star to front Virgin’s broadband campaign

Virgin Media has drafted in a celebrity face, in the form of Pulp Fiction star Samuel L Jackson, to front its first TV advertising campaign for 50Mb broadband.

The TV campaign will be launched tomorrow night, during the football coverage of the third-round FA Cup tie, between Liverpool and Preston North End.

Speaking to the Guardian, Ashley Stockwell, managing director of brand and marketing at Virgin Media, said: “50Mb is a massive leap forward for the broadband market and promises to transform the way people interact and entertain themselves online.

“Samuel L Jackson is an unmistakably powerful voice to deliver our message and bring the impact of ultrafast broadband right into people’s living room.”

Virgin Media’s 50 Mb broadband service is currently the fastest available on the broadband market. The faster speeds should provide an unrivalled level of service for Virgin broadband customers who will be able to download films in just over three minutes, TV shows in a minute and music albums in 11 seconds. However, for the privilege, Virgin ‘broadband only’ customers may have to pay up to £51 per month. Cheaper 50Mb broadband packages are available to Virgin customers who subscribe to other products, such as a landline phone.

In the TV campaign, Jackson stands in front of a bright wall of lights which portray Virgin Media’s fibre optic broadband network. Jackson says: “It is 2009. Remember the time when the internet revolution really happened.”

You can see the new broadband advert on the Guardian website. Here is an old Virgin Media broadband ad featuring L Jackson:

Queen’s speech loses viewers to broadband

Queen’s speech loses viewers to broadband in festive carve-up.

Broadband surfing proved preferable to the Queen’s speech for many British citizens on Christmas Day. That’s the word on the street as it appears people are ditching their long-held family traditions in favour of sessions in front of the broadband connection. And while watching a plum-voiced old woman attempt to appear in-touch with the people who pay her wages might seem like a brilliant way of spending ten minutes on Christmas day, it seems most people would rather check their emails.

Facebook, the social networking site, experienced a surge in broadband activity between 2pm and 3pm on Christmas day – the time of the yearly Queen’s speech broadcast.

The results, from a survey run by broadband provider PlusNet, also reveal that Facebook performed particularly well in terms of broadband traffic over the main festive period. In light of this, it would seem messaging friends and relatives has evolved as an important Christmas activity. Facebook was only topped in terms of broadband traffic by search engine Google.

Other sites which saw increased broadband traffic were shopping sites such as Amazon and Argos, as broadband surfers used Christmas Day and Boxing Day to bag a bargain.

The PlusNet study reveals the top 10 broadband sites experiencing the greatest volume of traffic on Christmas Day and Boxing Day:

Christmas Day
Rank
1st Google
2nd Facebook
3rd BBC
4th Amazon
5th iTunes
6th YouTube
7th eBay
8th MSN
9th Bebo
10th Microsoft

Boxing Day
Rank
1st Google
2nd Facebook
3rd BBC
4th Amazon
5th eBay
6th YouTube
7th iTunes
8th Argos
9th Bebo
10th Play.com

Commenting on the broadband findings, Neil Armstrong, PlusNet’s products director, said: “The study is a good illustration of how the web is changing the face of the traditional Christmas as more people go online for their fun, information and entertainment.”

Good Week Bad Week 19 December 2008

It’s been a Good Week for...

Mobile broadband laptops – good news for fans of embedded technology: sales of mobile broadband-ready 3G laptops have increased sharply since they were launched to the public. One study has found that mobile broadband laptops are currently outselling models that require a dongle by a ratio of 3:2.

Welsh broadband users – the Welsh Assembly has named six villages in the principality that will be given brand new superfast broadband connections. These so-called ‘not-spots’ will be able to receive up-to-speed broadband next year, with villagers saying it will help local children with homework and Facebook.

Superfast broadband – Virgin Media finally released its successor to the Mother Of All Broadband, a new fibre optic 50Mbps service, with a glitzy photoshoot featuring Strictly Come Dancing star and former S Clubber Rachel Stevens. The new service is said to be nine times the speed of average broadband in the UK. Virgin Media said it will be available to more than 12.6 million homes by the summer of 2009.

It’s been a Bad Week for...

Criminals – bad news for nefarious types hoping to maintain an edge of law-evading anonymity: you can now be served legal papers over Facebook. One couple, who avoided summons by ignoring emails, phone calls and visits to their house, were shocked to find a court order among the invitations to install SuperPoke when they logged on to the popular social networking site.

Nokia mobile broadband – the latest word from the Scandinavian mobile phone giant is that they won’t release their own mobile broadband package when they start selling mobile broadband USB dongles next year, instead letting providers use the hardware in conjunction with their own mobile broadband deals.

Broadband customers – new research shows that broadband users are being hit by hidden costs outlined in their broadband package small print. Around 27% pay an average of £36 a year, say Moneysupermarket, on extras such as paper billing and non-Direct Debit payments. Still, the costs aren’t really ‘hidden’ – just written in small writing. Always check any contract thoroughly before signing up to a broadband deal.