EchoStar and DirecTV, the two competing satellite broadcasters in the United States, have both announced increases in their number of subscribers -- EchoStar added around 325,000 new subscribers to its Dish Network in the first quarter of the 2005, bringing its total number of satellite customers to 11.23 million. DirecTV added over half a million subscribers in the United States in the same period, an increase of over 20 percent on the previous year. At the end of March, DirecTV had a total of 14.45 million customers, a 14 percent increase on a year previously. Chase Carey, president and chief executive of DirecTV, said the company is moving quickly to enhance its service, launching three new satellites to allow it to introduce compelling new programming services. At the end of the year the company will also introduce a Home Media Center.
Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is quietly becoming one of the most strategic short-range wireless technologies in the market, moving from niche deployments into the mainstream of smartphones, cars, and smart spaces. As the ecosystem matures and next-generation implementations arrive, UWB is shifting from nice-to-have to a foundational capability for secure access, sensing, and high-performance device-to-device connectivity. UWB Technology Market Development Unlike Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, or legacy IEEE 802.15.4 implementations, UWB combines three powerful attributes in a single radio: secure ranging, radar-like sensing, and low-latency, high-throughput short-range data. This allows networking and IT vendors to architect experiences that blend precise location, context awareness, and rich interaction in ways traditional connectivity stacks cannot easily match. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, UWB is expected to be one of the fastest-growing wireless connectivity...