Jessops gone. Who's next?

Last year Richard Branson was looking to buy back Virgin Records. The blurb being that he could once again see potential in vinyl plus new(?) developments with audio. What does he know? He may even now be eyeing up HMV.   

like Interman, I buy all my music as digital downloads.  if I want it as a CD to play in the car, I can burn a CD easily enough

the biggest barrier however to a fully digital era that Eggy mentions is broadband speeds.  4G is going to take some time to develop nationwide and fast wired broadband - and I mean 20Mb+ here - is so patchy in terms of the rollout that it's a joke.  

fat buddha wrote (see)

4G is going to take some time to develop nationwide and fast wired broadband - and I mean 20Mb+ here - is so patchy in terms of the rollout that it's a joke.  

True, although ten years ago 128k would have been classed as broadband and 512k would have been an awesomely fast connection in the UK!

Plus we are behind pretty much every developed country regarding our infrastructure due to the ballsed up privatisation of the telecom network.

Our telecom infrastructure was balls up by the mobile operators paying way over the odds for 3G licences and then not having any capex to use them

Dave The Ex- Spartan wrote (see)

Our telecom infrastructure was balls up by the mobile operators paying way over the odds for 3G licences and then not having any capex to use them

No, that just was just the government laughing at the idiocy of private firms getting in a willy waving competition.

The big issue with regards to out telecom infrastructure for delivering broadband was having BT own the exchanges. There has been 20 years of constant fighting between BT and the other vendors over paying to upgrade these exchanges. BT don't want to fund it all as the other vendors can cash in on it. The other vendors don't want to pay as BT technically own the exchanges.

The exchanges should be State controlled.

That was what local loop unbundling was all about, The main issue has been 43 million copper pairs rather than fibre to the kerb, If like me you are 3 miles from your local exchange you are stuffed no matter who owns the exchange if you are getting your BB down a twisted pair

True, but local loop unbundling is sparsely used in many parts of the country. The exchanges and infrastructure are a vital component in a nations technological development and ours is in a never ending game of playing catch-up.

Private firms are only concerned with generating profits to please shareholders. Something as important as that should not be driven by shareholder interests, but by national requirements.

LLU has been pretty much been a joke for reasons stated.   BT needs to be given the capital from central funding to upgrade the infrastructure to suit 21st C demands irrespective of who provides the ongoing service.  it's akin to upgrading the rail service - without the capital investment in upgrades it will never improve or at a rate that is so tedious it makes it a joke.

the UK has been under-capitalising major infrastructure projects for years - hence why we have no decent high speed train services, a poor telecoms network, a useless national water pipeline to get water where it's needed, etc etc etc

it's one of the reasons I am coming back around to nationalisation as a way forward to these things and get rid of the myriad of companies who are only interested in their shareholder returns.  

fat buddha wrote (see)

  BT needs to be given the capital from central funding to upgrade the infrastructure to suit 21st C demands irrespective of who provides the ongoing service.  

BT had a 3 year long tendering program called 21CN designed to bring the network up to scratch....

... and in driving costs down it put the remaining UK manufacturer out of business whilst awarding the contract to a bunch of Swedes who couldn't deliver....

But it's OK Huawei are on the scene now to give the kit away free and rip BT off on service contracts and bu$$er up the Swedes

penguingirl wrote (see)

Also the stationary shops such as Rymans are surely on borrowed time? 

I don't think the stationary shops are moving anywhere

We need companies that are concerned about returns for their shareholders because, like it or not, we're all affected by those returns, be it pensions, insurance, medical cover, etc.

I'm not saying you don't need private companies, but not for every service. I firmly believe that certain core services should never be run on a for profit basis.

Eggyh73 wrote (see)

 core services should never be run on a for profit basis.

 

You mean Huawei !!!!

No I mean State control.

Eggyh73 wrote (see)

No I mean State control.

You do mean Huawei !

No State controlled, not out sourced.

Out sourced is not State controlled, it's State financed.

I thought Huawei was state controlled ?

Nope they're a private Chinese firm.

Eggyh73 wrote (see)

Nope they're a private Chinese firm.

Yeah Right.....

Intermanaut wrote (see)

Any shop that sells things that you don't need to test or try-on will struggle. HMV's demise won't pave the way for may independents - who buys CDs these days?  Downloads are where music is heading.

agreed, especially as supermarkets like tesco sell all the games, dvds and cd's you need anyway.

Eggyh73 wrote (see)

CD is a ill pensioner on it's way to the grave. DVD/Blu-Ray will follow suit in the future. The future of media is digital.

Hell I'd even say Sky and Virgin better watch out, as the coming generation are used to instant access to shows and no advert breaks and they watch when they want. The only thing Sky have to fight that is the sports licenses, but give it time until that becomes a stream legal service. Some of the USA sports are already going down that route like the NFL, where you can subscribe to a season pass and pick what live game you want to watch out of any of the games on at that time. That is the future of sports broadcasting.

Not much more than a decade after the music industry thought it had killed music download by attacking Napster high street music retail is all but dead. Recently the film industry attacks The Pirate Bay. Are we giving Hollywood ten years before it sees the flaw in sticking to old ways and not embracing the future?

The World Wide Web has made the world a much smaller place. Adapt or die.

i think sky will turn into more of a netflix kind of service if its smart, their on demand service is already going that way,