There is a new FTA in town! Following up on the Nanosat Premium which came out a few months ago and was a success the company released a brand new receiver.

This new edition to the family has a built in ethernet adapter and is designed not only to pick up true FTA signals but also share media on your home network. You can also download movies from the Nanosat website, which is a welcome edition.

If you are more into audio then video you can pick up a ton of internet radio stations to get your groove on.

FTA Receivers are really maturing over the course of the last year with the ability to phase out dongles and instead go with ethernet adapters built right inside the unit. It is also very solid to take advantage of your internet connection and utilize your receiver to not only tap into your home network but also take advantage of the internet to pick up new content.

Nanosat  Nano Lite Main Features:

Homestream MPEG. Play movies from your PC on your Receiver via your Network

Internet Movie. Download Movies from Nanosat website

Internet Radio. Listen to online radio stations on your Nano Premium

WIFI READY. Nano Lite can go wireless with optional wireless WiFi Bridge adapter

2x USB ports for MP3,JPEG viewer and PVR functions

Built in LAN Internet Port

High Quality Universal Remote

Easy to use GUI / OSD

Specs

Popularity: 21% [?]

The federal government is being formally asked to overturn a CRTC decision that will force smaller internet service providers to charge similar usage-based fees as Bell, Rogers and Shaw.

Jean-François Mezei, a Montreal-based computer consultant, filed a petition to the Governor in Council late Wednesday, asking the government to overrule an October decision by Canada’s telecommunications regulator.

That ruling gave Bell approval to implement usage-based billing on its wholesale customers, mostly smaller internet service providers that rent portions of Bell’s network to re-sell to customers through their own retail internet packages.

‘Without choice, there is no competition, and incumbents can then raise prices and lower service limits knowing customer have nowhere to go.’— Jean-François Mezei

Mezei’s petition argues that the decision impedes the ability of internet service providers to provide different choices of service for their customers.

“Without choice, there is no competition, and incumbents can then raise prices and lower service limits knowing customer have nowhere to go,” the petition said.
Bell and other major internet providers, including cable giant Rogers Communications Inc., say usage-based billing is needed to deal with booming online traffic and increased network congestion as people do more online — including downloading music and watching movies and television programs.

Mezei said Thursday in an interview that the CRTC decision will “hurt a lot of people” in the near future by limiting their ability to use the internet without paying large “overage” fees.
Audio

CBC’s Spark spoke to Markus Giesler, associate professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, about usage-based billing. You can hear more on the issue on this week’s episode on Sunday, Jan. 30 at 1:05 p.m. on CBC Radio One.

For example, in Ontario, Rogers charges customers of its $59.99 a month Hi-Speed Extreme plan who go over their 80 GB a month limit $1.50 per GB for a maximum of $50. Smaller ISPs have told customers that the CRTC decision forces them to start charging similar fees starting Feb. 1.

“Eighty per cent of people have not yet tasted what could be done on the internet, like watching TV shows,” Mezei said. “Once this becomes more popular, then those limits will really prevent people from doing stuff.”
Small business negatively affected

In the case of Mezei’s own business, Vaxination Informatique, the decision negatively affects his “ability to choose an ISP that can provide it with the services it requires and which differ from those offered by incumbent carriers,” the petition said.

On Wednesday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told investors he was \On Wednesday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told investors he was “definitely worried” about the “significant negative for Netflix” posed by bandwidth caps set by Canadian internet service providers. (Netflix)Mezei told CBC News he buys internet service from a small independent internet service provider in Montreal that rents network service from Bell. The CRTC decision means he must abide Bell’s rules, which ban him from running business servers from home, he added.

Mezei’s petition also argued that the CRTC has no jurisdiction to regulate retail internet services as it has effectively done.

Wednesday was the last day to appeal the CRTC decision to the Governor in Council, and Mezei is now waiting to hear whether his petition has been accepted. If it is, the document will be published in the Canada Gazette, there will be a 30-day comment period, and then Mezei must receive a response from the government by Oct. 28 — one year from the date of the CRTC ruling.

He said it is rare for a private citizen like himself to file such a petition, but he believes it’s an important issue.
Netflix worried

The CRTC decision has been widely protested and criticized by consumer groups, the NDP and smaller internet service providers.

It has also raised concerns from companies such as Netflix, which recently started providing a service in Canada that lets customers stream high-definition movies and television episodes to their TVs through the internet using devices like the Sony Playstation 3.

On Wednesday, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told investors he was “definitely worried” about the “significant negative for Netflix” posed by bandwidth caps set by Canadian internet service providers. He also said in a letter to investors that the $1 charged for each gigabyte above bandwidth caps by some internet service providers is “grossly overpriced.”

A day earlier, the CRTC announced that wholesale internet providers, such as Bell, will have to offer its wholesale customers a 15 per cent discount on usage-based fees compared to what they charge their retail internet customers.

The group OpenMedia.ca, which had gathered more than 40,000 names on a petition to stop usage-based billing from being imposed on small, independent ISPs, said that decision failed to safeguard consumer choice.

With files from The Canadian Press

Popularity: 24% [?]

The Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (Casbaa) has announced that pay-TV in Asia has reached the tipping point of 50 per cent penetration of all Asian TV homes. This development opens the door to growth in ad revenues over the next five years.

According to Asia Pacific pay-TV industry research carried out by Casbaa, pay-TV services now connect with almost 363 million homes in Asia, surpassing the US where pay-TV reaches 121 million.

Pay-TV penetration varies dramatically across the region. South Korea with 99 per cent has the highest penetration while Indonesia with penetration of three per cent of TV homes has the lowest.

Growth in the pay-TV industry is primarily driven by India (75 per cent penetration of all TV homes) and China (48 per cent) but Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam are contributing significantly to this growth.

Nevertheless, in terms of revenues earned, pay-TV in Asia continues to lag behind North America and Western Europe in both penetration and revenues. According to data firm SNL Kagan, in North America pay-TV reaches 87.7 per cent of households and generated $102.50 billion in revenues in 2010, while Western Europe enjoys penetration of 61.9 per cent and revenues of $41.04 billion.

In 2010 pay-TV in Asia will generate a little over $30 billion from its 50 per cent penetration rate.

Casbaa CEO Simon Twiston Davies says, “Asia now leads the world in multichannel TV connections, with growth only expected to accelerate. With more than 50 per cent penetration across the region and the lion’s share of the high net worth audience, subscription TV is more attractive than ever to subscribers, advertisers and investors”.

According to an annual piracy survey by Casbaa and Standard Chartered Bank, over $2 billion will have been lost to piracy this year. Casbaa noted that this loss, while high, does not include revenues lost to internet piracy.

Revenues lost through piracy damage not just pay-TV operators, but also regional governments. Research undertaken by PwC reveals that at least $262 million is lost annually from government coffers. This includes lost corporate profits tax in 2010 of $195 million and VAT/GST of $67 million.

According to Casbaa, governments worst hit by piracy include Thailand, Pakistan and the Philippines, which in 2010 will have lost $87 million, $63 million, and $38 million respectively.

Despite these hurdles, the increasing digitisation of pay-TV in Asia combined with the ongoing commitment from governments, regulators, operators and content providers to eradicate piracy, continues to have a positive impact across the region as the industry continues on its upward course.

“Technology works. In Hong Kong we have seen a dramatic fall in revenue leakage to $1.09 million in the past year. In India, while some regulatory weaknesses leave a huge hole in the industry revenue flow, the government is benefiting from a new will to collect entertainment and business taxes on more than 25 million digital pay-TV subscriptions. Improving digital roll-outs in the Philippines are helping our industry “hold the line” in terms of revenue losses to individuals stealing from the pay-TV operators. An increasing recognition that intellectual property rights enforcement can benefit the entire value chain is gradually taking hold in markets where domestic content has been damaged by theft. The next big challenge for pay-TV operators and providers of all kinds will be to monetize “the massive on-line opportunity,” said Davies.

Popularity: 29% [?]

Space Systems/Loral reports that a communications satellite that it designed and built for Intelsat arrived safely at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where it is scheduled to launch in November aboard an Ariane 5 launch vehicle.

“Intelsat 17 was delivered to launch base nearly two months ahead of the contract delivery date,” said John Celli, president of Space Systems/Loral.

“We always strive to help customers achieve their business objectives and in this case, an early launch date was highly desirable. This is the 45th satellite that we have delivered to Intelsat and our long-term, collaborative relationship helps both our companies maximize efficiencies and ensure the highest quality.”

Intelsat 17 will be positioned at 66E, effectively next to Intelsat’s successful Asian video distribution neighborhood located at 68.5E, on the Intelsat 10 satellite, which has been serving customers since 2001.

Intelsat 17′s C- and Ku-band capacity, and multi-continental coverage, will offer programmers distribution in a region that extends across Asia and into Europe and Africa.

It will replace Intelsat 702, which was also built by Space Systems/Loral and was launched in June 1994.

Popularity: 29% [?]