ACTS lays info society highways

Date: 25/04/1996

By Peter Chapman

THE Union's 603-million-ecu Advanced Communications Technologies and Services (ACTS) research and development programme is laying the highways for the information society.

ACTS money is funding European R&D on high-speed fibre optics - mobile telephones for the 21st century which will give access to the information superhighway at any time, any place and digital terrestrial television systems that will bring hundreds of channels into viewers' homes.

Spyros Konidaris, the Commission's ACTS programme chief, sees advanced mobile telephony and broadband networks carrying huge volumes of data as the key areas likely to produce visible results from the R&D programme launched last year and set to run until 1999.

The mobile sector includes the largest project in ACTS - a 13.1-million-ecu project consortium led by Munich-based Siemens AG, and including a strong Scandinavian influence with Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson Radio Systems.

Marcus Dillinger, Siemens project officer, said: “We want to consolidate Europe's success with GSM and come up with a third generation mobile standard. This will be done by creating an industry consensus around a future standard in universal mobile telecoms services (UMTS).”

Experts say that UMTS services - combining mobile and fixed telephone services to give customers access to e-mail and Internet applications normally restricted to fixed networks via their mobile handsets - will be launched in 2005.

But some areas of advanced telecoms have not generated much enthusiasm within the Commission. Mention video-on-demand to ACTS chief Konidaris and his reaction may surprise those who believe the hype of those who say it is the 'killer application' of the information society.

“Video-on-demand is a fiasco. It is a bluff. Interactive television is different - that does have a future. Teleshopping and tele-education are already on the market,” says Konidaris.

“It is the network that is missing. It is what goes into the ground that matters. Things like video-on-demand and teleshopping are just like e-mail. It is OK, but I say you should take it out of the fourth framework.”

Other ACTS projects are focusing on demonstrating the value of existing technology. Very high bandwidth 'asynchronous transfer mode' networks capable of carrying intricate video, data and voice messages are being used in the so-called 'Bonaparte' project, led by Milan-based Italtel, which will link hospitals in Spain, Italy, Germany and Switzerland so that doctors can compare opinions on diagnosis.

But as projects continue under the current tranche of ACTS funding, the Commission is already looking ahead. Information overload in the information society will prove to be one of the key issues in 21st century telecommunications, according to ACTS 2000 Plus, a Commission study into the post-1998 phase of EU-funded R&D in the sector.

“As communications make available more and more information, the limiting factor becomes the ability of the person to perceive. Hundreds of television channels do increase choice, but at any one time a person will only watch one channel,” it states.

“The issue becomes that of enhancing the relevance or, in other words, making sure that the communication provides the information wanted when, where, and in the desired form.”

R&D will also concentrate on measures to make new technology such as TV-telephony and interactive video cheaper and more widely available. Legislation on security, copyright and freedom of access to information are all areas which will need technical solutions.

The study also provides clues as to which areas can expect EU funding in future. These include three-dimensional holographic displays to replace 'windows' on the user interface for PCs, transmission of TV programmes in a 'web type' environment and mobile satellite networks offering ever-faster Internet services.