Super-fast broadband finds movies at touch of button

Latest high-speed networks are set to change viewing habits by making online TV and movie libraries instantly accessible, writes Richard Barry

Think your internet broadband access is quick now? Think again. This time next year, it will be so fast it might just change the way you watch TV.

Ireland's internet users are about to get a wake-up call by joining Sweden and the UK in embracing the latest high-speed broadband.

While we are still plodding around at 1 to 3MB speeds, England's latest craze is 24MB broadband which it inherited from the Swedes, who have been using 26MB broadband for more than two years. The good news is that it's coming to Dublin next year.

Broadband speeds of 24MB is what the combustion engine was to trains. It's like Mach speed has finally gone online and the benefits for broadband users may represent a major leap in what we can expect to do with our televisions and computers.

Because it's so fast, 24MB broadband can put movies and programmes into your living room at the touch of a button and because this is digital content, you get to do a lot more with it than just watching it.

At a broadband conference in Madrid last week, a showcase was made for a group of people - all in different parts of the world - getting together over the internet to watch Chelsea play Arsenal in a super-sized conference call. They all watched the same TV, but because they were digitally linked over a super-fast network, they could text and talk to one another at the same time, using just their TVs.

Users can also download any of the thousands of movies or programmes online without waiting for them to arrive. It will all be at the touch of a button. The man driving this digital utopia is Boris Ivanovich, director of broadband ISP Be, which launched 24MB broadband in the UK in September.

"Soon, you will be able to watch TV programmes or movies when you want over broadband, because online libraries with literally thousands of hours of entertainment will be available to give you exactly what you want, on demand," says Ivanovich.

And he should know. Be's success has the Swedes demanding faster access. He reckons that speed is driving the development of new services that will be equally as important to how we watch the TV, just as ordinary broadband has been to how we listen and buy music.

He explains: "It is the beginning of the end for TV as we know it.

"Broadband at 24MB speed provides instant access to movies to either download or stream to your TV or PC. You also get to choose from a bigger range than any rental store can offer 30,000 plus movies all in online libraries It happened to music with iTunes."

Ivanovich may be bullish, but he's right to point to iTunes. Apple effectively dragged the music industry into the 21st century when it coupled its ubiquitous iPod with the iTunes software, proving that people are willing to shop for music online. ITunes sold 70 million tracks in its first year and expects to double that figure this year.

Ovum analyst John Delaney agrees that super-fast broadband has the ability to change what he terms "traditional viewing habits", but doesn't think that it will happen in a hurry.

"Everyone has a TV but not everyone has, or wants, broadband." Delaney believes that people may start using their broadband services to watch TV without actually realising it.

"In Hong Kong, there is a growing trend to watch TV through broadband connections rather than traditional means."

According to David McRedmond, Eircom's commercial director, the company "is currently testing the type of technology that can offer these speeds. What gets me excited though, is the potential to make things simpler, not just faster. Converged voice for example is very exciting."

Converged voice means combining all your telephone services into one single service. So, no more mobile plus landline, broadband will be able to do both, although McRedmond admits that the "one phone" scenario "is a fair bit off yet".

Ivanovich says that trials with 24MB broadband could start in Dublin before next summer.

"It is inevitable because of what happened with music," he says.

"People wanted to get their music online and they want to do the same with movies and programmes, so it makes sense that the makers of this entertainment will figure out how to do that."

In the US, it is already happening, with more people watching music videos over AOL than on MTV. Yahoo! is also beefing up its broadband ability with Project Lightspeed, which will provide video on-demand as well as instant messaging, photo collections and music.

What is clear from all this super-fast surfing is that the lowly TV is about to change dramatically. Companies are already lining up to provide programmes and movies that you download, rather than tune into.

It looks like Ireland will be riding the crest of that wave and taking part in a race to give the consumer exactly what they want, when they want it.