Jessops gone. Who's next?

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Comments

  • 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.  

  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭
    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

  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭
    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

  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭

    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 anywhereimage

  • 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.

  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭

    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 !!!!

  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭

    No I mean State control.

  • Eggyh73 wrote (see)

    No I mean State control.

    You do mean Huawei !

     

  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭

    No State controlled, not out sourced.

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

  • I thought Huawei was state controlled ?

  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭

    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, 

  • High Street shops need to re-think their opening hours. 9-5.30 doesn't suit the majority.

  • Intermanaut wrote (see)

     If I want superb audio quality, then I buy vinyl.

    You're a lucky chap/chapess if you can get all the music you like on vinyl.
    Unfortunately most of the bands / artists I'm into don't release on vinyl so I buy the next best, uncompressed option, CD.

    Yes I also want superb audio quality and mp3 doesn't have it.

  • DustinDustin ✭✭✭

    I'm old school.
    Plenty of comments about how easy it is to download music (and books) these days, and nobody needs it on CD. I'll agree that downloading is the simple way, but what if you don't know what you want?
    The beauty of record shops (and book shops) back in the day was that you could have a browse, and often you actually spoke, face to face, with other like minded people who would give you a tip off. In some shops the retailer would also let you have a listen either privately or over the stores airwaves (and were always 'musos' who knew their onions) 
    Thus your music (and literal) tastes widened and you walked out with something you didn't know you wanted. I agree that the street retailer is more expensive, but thats a price I'd pay for a bit more in the way of service.
    When we go shopping the wife and girls go off to wherever, and I oscillate between HMV and Waterstones. "Why don't you get it on amazon" they ask, the answer is obvious, "I don't know what I want"

  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭

    Not knowing what you want or exposure to new things is the beauty of online media. Install something like Spotify, or even browse Youtube and you have free access to thousands of tracks and artists. You can discover music from any genre all at the click of a button. Unlike a retailer who in terms of HMV have staff with little to no knowledge of the media they sell and will only ever recommend things they have heard about.

    You want a book, search the subject. Most book retailers have a view before you buy online, or read reviews and feedback.

    If anything high street shopping restricts your options to new genres and possibilities as they can never match what is available online.

  • Gee Raff - I only by one vinyl album a month (a decent pressing is around the £25 mark for a double LP), and go for classics (Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Kylie Minogue).  Most of the music I buy is MP3, and I save vinyl for the good stuff I'd sit and listen to, rather than what I'd hear while I'm doing something else.

  • DustinDustin ✭✭✭

    not sure what will catch my eye at a click of a button, and wouldn't know what to type in the subject (or genre) line.
    I don't buy my clothes online either (apart from running shoes, as I know what I want with them)
    I'll agree though that staff are less knowledgable now.

  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭

    I very rarely buy clothes online. Mostly as being a tall thin lad I need to try things on to make sure they fit. Most clothes for men seem to be designed that if you are tall you must be a big fat git too! image

  • @Eggyh73 - I've recently realised that, in FatFace, I'm too small for their jackets (5'9, 72kg, 30" waist). Their range starts at S, and goes upto XXL.  They shouldn't make clothes for people who are XXL!

  • Blockbusters about to go by the look of it

  • their falling like flies

  • I got a £50 decathalon card for christmas so I reckon they'll probably go bust next.

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