1.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
2.
Optical fiber
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An optical fiber or optical fibre is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Fibers are also used for illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so that they may be used to carry images, thus allowing viewing in confined spaces, as in the case of a fiberscope. Specially designed fibers are used for a variety of other applications, some of them being fiber optic sensors. Optical fibers typically include a transparent core surrounded by a transparent cladding material with an index of refraction. Light is kept in the core by the phenomenon of internal reflection which causes the fiber to act as a waveguide. Fibers that support many propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers, multi-mode fibers generally have a wider core diameter and are used for short-distance communication links and for applications where high power must be transmitted. Single-mode fibers are used for most communication links longer than 1,000 meters, being able to join optical fibers with low loss is important in fiber optic communication. This is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable and involves careful cleaving of the fibers, precise alignment of the cores. For applications that demand a permanent connection a fusion splice is common, in this technique, an electric arc is used to melt the ends of the fibers together. Another common technique is a splice, where the ends of the fibers are held in contact by mechanical force. Temporary or semi-permanent connections are made by means of specialized optical fiber connectors, the field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics. The term was coined by Indian physicist Narinder Singh Kapany who is acknowledged as the father of fiber optics. Guiding of light by refraction, the principle that makes fiber optics possible, was first demonstrated by Daniel Colladon, John Tyndall included a demonstration of it in his public lectures in London,12 years later. When the ray passes from water to air it is bent from the perpendicular. If the angle which the ray in water encloses with the perpendicular to the surface be greater than 48 degrees, the angle which marks the limit where total reflection begins is called the limiting angle of the medium. For water this angle is 48°27′, for flint glass it is 38°41′, unpigmented human hairs have also been shown to act as an optical fiber. Practical applications, such as close internal illumination during dentistry, appeared early in the twentieth century, image transmission through tubes was demonstrated independently by the radio experimenter Clarence Hansell and the television pioneer John Logie Baird in the 1920s. The principle was first used for medical examinations by Heinrich Lamm in the following decade
3.
Satellite television
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A direct-broadcast satellite is a type of artificial satellite which usually broadcasts satellite television signals for home reception. The type of satellite television which uses direct-broadcast satellites is known as direct-broadcast satellite television or direct-to-home television and these services were to use the D-Mac and D2-Mac format and BSS frequencies with circular polarization from orbital positions allocated to each country. Before these DBS satellites, home satellite television in Europe was limited to a few channels, really intended for cable distribution, in 1977, the ITU adopted an international BSS Plan under which each country was allocated specific frequencies at specific orbital locations for domestic service. Over the years, this plan has been modified to, for example, accommodate new countries, increase coverage areas, at present, numerous countries have brought into use their BSS Plan allocations. By contrast, the term DTH can apply to similar services transmitted over a range of frequencies transmitted from satellites that are not part of any internationally planned band. The term DBS is often used interchangeably with DTH to cover both analog and digital video and audio services received by relatively small dishes, a DBS service usually refers to either a commercial service, or a group of free channels available from one orbital position targeting one country. In certain regions of the world, especially in North America, DBS is used to refer to providers of subscription satellite packages, the second commercial DBS service, Sky Television plc, was launched in 1989. Sky TV started as a four-channel free-to-air analogue service on the Astra 1A satellite, by 1991, Sky had changed to a conditional access pay model, and it launched a digital service, Sky Digital, in 1998, with analogue transmission ceasing in 2001. Since the DBS nomenclature is used in the UK or Ireland. News Corporation has a 32% stake in BSkyB, PrimeStar began transmitting an analog service to North America in 1991, and was joined by DirecTV, in 1994. At the time, DirecTVs introduction was the most successful consumer electronics debut in American history, although PrimeStar transitioned to a digital system in 1994, it was ultimately unable to compete with DirecTV, which required a smaller satellite dish and could deliver more programming. DirecTV purchased PrimeStar in 1999 and moved all of that subscribers to DirecTV equipment. In 2008, Liberty Media Corporation purchased News Corporations controlling interest in DirecTV, in 1996, EchoStars Dish Network went online in the United States and, as DirecTVs primary competitor, achieved similar success. AlphaStar also started but soon went under, astro was also started, using a direct broadcast satellite system. Dominion Video Satellite Inc. s Sky Angel launched on a platform in the United States in 1996, with its DBS service geared toward the faith. It grew from six to 36 television and radio channels of entertainment, Christian-inspirational programming. Dominion, under its corporate name Video Satellite Systems Inc. Sky Angel, although a separate and independent DBS service, used the satellites, transmission facilities
4.
Internet access
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Internet access is the process that enables individuals and organisations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, mobile devices, sometimes via computer networks. Once connected to the Internet, users can access Internet services, such as email, Internet service providers offer Internet access through various technologies that offer a wide range of data signaling rates. Consumer use of the Internet first became popular through dial-up Internet access in the 1990s, by the first decade of the 21st century, many consumers in developed nations used faster, broadband Internet access technologies. By 2014 this was almost ubiquitous worldwide, with an average connection speed exceeding 4 Mbit/s. Use by a wider audience came in 1995 when restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic were lifted. LANs typically operated at 10 Mbit/s, while modem data-rates grew from 1200 bit/s in the early 1980s, initially, dial-up connections were made from terminals or computers running terminal emulation software to terminal servers on LANs. These dial-up connections did not support use of the Internet protocols. Broadband connections are made using a computers built in Ethernet networking capabilities. Most broadband services provide a continuous always on connection, there is no dial-in process required, made broadband Internet access a public policy issue. In 2000, most Internet access to homes was provided using dial-up, while many businesses, in 2000 there were just under 150 million dial-up subscriptions in the 34 OECD countries and fewer than 20 million broadband subscriptions. By 2004, broadband had grown and dial-up had declined so that the number of subscriptions were roughly equal at 130 million each, the broadband technologies in widest use are ADSL and cable Internet access. Newer technologies include VDSL and optical fibre extended closer to the subscriber in telephone and cable plants. In areas not served by ADSL or cable, some community organizations, Wireless and satellite Internet are often used in rural, undeveloped, or other hard to serve areas where wired Internet is not readily available. Newer technologies being deployed for fixed and mobile broadband access include WiMAX, LTE, starting in roughly 2006, mobile broadband access is increasingly available at the consumer level using 3G and 4G technologies such as HSPA, EV-DO, HSPA+, and LTE. Some libraries provide stations for physically connecting users laptops to local area networks, Wireless Internet access points are available in public places such as airport halls, in some cases just for brief use while standing. Some access points may also provide coin-operated computers, various terms are used, such as public Internet kiosk, public access terminal, and Web payphone. Many hotels also have public terminals, usually fee based and these services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. A Wi-Fi hotspot need not be limited to a location since multiple ones combined can cover a whole campus or park
5.
Swisscom
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Swisscom AG is a major telecommunications provider in Switzerland. Its headquarters are located at Worblaufen near Bern, the Swiss Confederation owns 51.0 percent of Swisscom AG. As of the end of 2015, Swisscom had around 21,000 employees, the Swiss telegraph network was first set up in 1852, followed by telephones in 1877. The two networks were combined with the service in 1920 to form the PTT. The Swiss telecommunications market was deregulated in 1997, Telecom PTT was spun off and rebranded Swisscom ahead of a partial privatisation in 1998 which has left the Swiss government with a 51% stake. Besides pioneering the first mobile telephone network NATEL A, the present-day Swisscom owns the protected brand NATEL, 25% of Swisscom Mobile was sold to Vodafone in 2001. Since then Swisscom has bought a majority stake in Italys second-biggest telecom company Fastweb and invested in such as hospitality support, cloud services, mobile solutions. Switzerlands entry into the era came in 1851, with the passage of legislation giving the Swiss government control over development of a telegraph network throughout the country. The governments initial plans called for the creation of three primary lines, as well as a number of secondary networks. In order to build equipment for the system, the government established the Atelier Fédéral de Construction des Télégraphs, in July 1852, the first leg of the countrys telegraph system—between St. Gallen and Zurich—was operational. By the end of year, most of the countrys main cities had been connected to the telegraph system. In 1855, the network was extended with the first underwater cable, connecting Winkel-Stansstad, night service was also launched that year, starting in Basel, St. Gallen and Bellinzona. Telegraph traffic took off in the late 1860s after the government reduced the cost of a 20-word message in 1867, while telegraph traffic continued to rise in the following decade, the technology was soon to be replaced by the telephone. The following year, the government passed legislation establishing a monopoly on the telephone network. Nonetheless, private operators were allowed to bid for licenses in order to develop their local concessions, by 1880, Switzerlands first private network had been created in Zurich. This was a system with the capacity for 200 lines. The first directory was published that year and listed 140 subscribers. Basel, Bern, and Geneva all launched their own local networks between 1881 and 1882, one year later, the first inter-city telephone line was established, linking Zurichs private exchange with Winterthurs public system
6.
Landline
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A landline telephone refers to a phone that uses a metal wire or fibre optic telephone line for transmission as distinguished from a mobile cellular line, which uses radio waves for transmission. In 2003, the CIA reported approximately 1.263 billion main telephone lines worldwide, china had more than any other country at 350 million and the United States was second with 268 million. The United Kingdom has 23.7 million residential fixed homephones, the 2013 statistics show that the total number of fixed-telephone subscribers in the world was about 1.16 billion. The number of landline subscribers continuously decreases due to upgrades in digital technology, a fixed phone line can be hard-wired or cordless and typically refers to the operation of wireless devices or systems in fixed locations such as homes. Fixed wireless devices usually derive their power from the utility mains electricity, unlike mobile wireless or portable wireless. Although mobile and portable systems can be used in fixed locations, efficiency, mobile or portable, battery-powered wireless systems can be used as emergency backups for fixed systems in case of a power blackout or natural disaster. So-called leased lines are invariably of the type, the implications of a land line in this context are security and survivability. For example, a military headquarters might be linked to units by landline to ensure that communication remains possible even if the conventional telephone network is damaged or destroyed. Another example of this is in airports, all air traffic control towers have dedicated lines connected to the police, fire department, hospitals, army, etc. Deployed as a precaution in case of emergency, these can be used at any time, in many countries the landline has not been readily available to most people. In some countries in Africa, the rise in cell phones has outpaced any rise in landline telephones, between 1998 and 2008, Africa added only 2.4 million landlines. However, during this time the number of mobile phone lines that have been subscribed to has skyrocketed. Between 2000 and 2008, cell phone use has risen from less than 2 in 100 people to 33 out of 100. In developing countries it is difficult to install landline copper that is accessible to everyone than it is to install mobile wireless towers that people can connect to from anywhere. In the early 21st century, the telephone has declined due to the advancement of mobile network technology. Some see this happening as soon as the year 2025, in 2004, only about 45% of people in the United States between the ages of 12 and 17 owned cell phones. At that time, they had to rely on landline telephones, in just 4 years time, that percentage climbed to about 71%. That same year,2008, about 77% of adults owned a mobile phone, in the year 2013, 91% of adults in the United States owned a mobile phone
7.
Cable television
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This contrasts with broadcast television, in which the television signal is transmitted over the air by radio waves and received by a television antenna attached to the television. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephone services, and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables, analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation. A cable channel is a television network available via cable television, alternative terms include non-broadcast channel or programming service, the latter being mainly used in legal contexts. Examples of cable/satellite channels/cable networks available in many countries are HBO, MTV, Cartoon Network, E. Eurosport, the abbreviation CATV is often used for cable television. It originally stood for Community Access Television or Community Antenna Television, in areas where over-the-air TV reception was limited by distance from transmitters or mountainous terrain, large community antennas were constructed, and cable was run from them to individual homes. The origins of cable broadcasting for radio are even older as radio programming was distributed by cable in some European cities as far back as 1924, Cable television has gone through a series of steps of evolution in the United States and Canada. Particularly in Canada, communities with their own signals were fertile cable markets, as viewers wanted to receive American signals. Early systems carried only a maximum of seven channels, using 2,4,5 or 6,7,9,11 and 13, as the equipment was unable to confine the signal discreetly within the assigned channel bandwidth. The reason 4 and 5 along with 6 and 7 could be used together was because of the 4 MHz gap between 4 and 5 and the nearly 90 MHz gap between 6 and 7. Even though eight channels are listed, in systems that maximized 7 channels. As equipment improved, all channels could be utilized, except where a local VHF television station broadcast. Local broadcast channels were not usable for signals deemed to be priority, later, the cable operators began to carry FM radio stations, and encouraged subscribers to connect their FM stereo sets to cable. Before stereo and bilingual TV sound became common, Pay-TV channel sound was added to the FM stereo cable line-ups, about this time, operators expanded beyond the 12-channel dial to use the midband and superband VHF channels adjacent to the high band 7-13 of North American television frequencies. Some operators as in Cornwall, Ontario, used a dual distribution network with Channels 2-13 on each of the two cables, during the 1980s, United States regulations not unlike public, educational, and government access created the beginning of cable-originated live television programming. These stations evolved partially into todays over-the-air digital subchannels, where a main broadcast TV station e. g, many live local programs with local interests were subsequently created all over the United States in most major television markets in the early 1980s. This evolved into todays many cable-only broadcasts of diverse programming, including cable-only produced television movies and miniseries, Cable specialty channels, starting with channels oriented to show movies and large sporting or performance events, diversified further, and narrowcasting became common. By the late 1980s, cable-only signals outnumbered broadcast signals on cable systems, by the mid-1980s in Canada, cable operators were allowed by the regulator to enter into distribution contracts with cable networks on their own. By the 1990s, tiers became common, with customers able to subscribe to different tiers to obtain different selections of additional channels above the basic selection, by subscribing to additional tiers, customers could get specialty channels, movie channels, and foreign channels
8.
Tiscali
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Tiscali s. p. a. is an Italian telecommunications company, based in Cagliari, Sardinia, that provides internet and telecommunications services to its domestic market. It previously had operations in other European nations through its acquisition of many smaller European Internet Service Providers in the late 1990s, Tiscali was created in January 1998 in Cagliari by Renato Soru, following the deregulation of Italian telephone system. The company owes its name to a Sardinian mountain at which remains of an ancient village were found, from March 1999 onward, Tiscali offered Tiscali Free Net, a subscription-free Internet service where customers only had to pay for the time they were online. This pushed other Italian providers to repeal their fixed subscription fees, on October 1999, the company went though an initial public offering to be traded on the Italian stock exchange at a share price of 46 Euros. 3,098,000 shares were offered to investors of which 2,658,000 shares were created through a capital increase, Soru made 20,240,000 Euros on the IPO. In 2012, the price per share had plummeted to 0.04 Euros, between 2001 and 2003, shares were also traded on the French stock exchange. Each of Tiscalis regional companies offer services, which may include broadband internet access. Between 2007 and 2008, Tiscali briefly operated an IPTV service in Italy and its UK television service, Tiscali TV was acquired by TalkTalk in 2009. In May 2009, its IP/MPLS backbone counted 90 Points of Presence and extended over 17 European countries and across the United States and its Autonomous System was a core ASN in the global Internet routing table, as well as the largest IPv6 backbone outside Asia. The network was sold to the Italian private equity firm BS Private Equity SpA on 27 May 2009, and renamed Tinet. Tiscali ran similar web portals for each of its countries, which features such as webmail, reviews, news, videos, dating, chat, radio, TV guide, streaming TV channels. Tiscali published a web browser of the same name which was distributed with its dial-up Internet packages. It was produced by UltraBrowser and used the core of Microsofts Internet Explorer to display web pages, the software has not been included in installation packages since Tiscalis corporate rebranding in 2004. Tiscali offered dial-up Internet access in Finland under service name Surfeu, Tiscali Campus in Cagliari has 1,000 employees. The center includes a development division for Internet technologies where researchers like Antonio Tuzzi, Luca Manunza, beginning in 2004, Tiscali sold off many of its regional sub-companies to native telecommunications operators in order to focus more on prime target areas. On 16 August 2004, Tiscali sold its Austrian branch, Tiscali Österreich GmbH, on 20 August 2004, Tiscali sold its South African branch, Tiscali, to MWEB Holdings Ltd. On 23 August 2004, Tiscali sold its Norwegian branch, Tiscali AS, on 30 August 2004, Tiscali sold its Swedish counterpart, Tiscali AB, to Spray Network AB, then a subsidiary of Lycos. On 16 September 2004, Tiscali sold its Swiss counterpart, Tiscali AG, on 19 October 2004, Tiscali sold its South African mobile telephone network, Tiscali Mobile, to Vodacom
9.
Chairman
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The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, a committee, or a deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chair presides over meetings of the group and conducts its business in an orderly fashion. When the group is not in session, the officers duties include acting as its head, its representative to the outside world. In some organizations, this position is called president, in others, where a board appoints a president. Other terms sometimes used for the office and its holder include chair, chairperson, chairwoman, presiding officer, president, moderator, facilitator, the chairman of a parliamentary chamber is often called the speaker. The term chair is used in lieu of chairman, in response to criticisms that using chairman is sexist. In his 1992 State of the Union address, then-U. S, president George H. W. Bush used chairman for men and chair for women. A1994 Canadian study found the Toronto Star newspaper referring to most presiding men as chairman, the Chronicle of Higher Education uses chairman for men and chairperson for women. An analysis of the British National Corpus found chairman used 1,142 times, chairperson 130 times, the National Association of Parliamentarians does not approve using chairperson. In World Schools Style debating, male chairs are called Mr. Chairman, the FranklinCovey Style Guide for Business and Technical Communication, as well as the American Psychological Association style guide, advocate using chair or chairperson, rather than chairman. The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style suggests that the forms are gaining ground. It advocates using chair to refer both to men and to women, the word chair can refer to the place from which the holder of the office presides, whether on a chair, at a lectern, or elsewhere. During meetings, the person presiding is said to be in the chair and is referred to as the chair. Major dictionaries state that the word derives from chair and man, some authorities, however, including Riddicks Rules of Procedure, suggest that the second part of chairman derives from the Latin manus, and thus claim gender-neutrality for the word. Vladimir Lenin, for example, officially functioned as the head of Soviet Russia not as tsar or as president, note in particular the popular standard method for referring to Mao Zedong, Chairman Mao. In the absence of the chairman and vice chairman, groups sometimes elect a chairman pro tempore to fill the role for a single meeting. In some organizations that have titles, deputy chairman ranks higher than vice chairman, as there are often multiple vice chairs
10.
Borsa Italiana
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Borsa Italiana S. p. A. based in Milan, is Italys stock exchange. It manages and organises domestic market, regulating procedures for admission and listing of companies and intermediaries, following exchange privatisation in 1997, the Company was established and became effective since January 2,1998. It is now a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group plc since June 23,2007, in 2015, overall capitalisation for listed company on Borsa Italiana was worth €465Bln, representing % of Italian GDP. Borsa Italiana is also known as Piazza Affari, after the city square of Milan where its headquarters is located. Borsa Italiana is chaired by Andrea Sironi while Raffaele Jerusalmi serves as CEO, the two, moreover, are also both members of the Board of Directors of London Stock Exchange Group. The Borsa di commercio di Milano was established by Eugène de Beauharnais, viceroy of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, in March 2016, the London Stock Exchange Group announced it had agree to merge in an all-stock deal with Deutsche Borse. Borsa Italiana acts as a management firm operating with autonomy. It organises and manages the domestic market along with Italian. Among its leading tasks, Borsa Italiana supervises listed companies, defining rules for admission and listings, major trading markets for Borsa Italiana are, MTA, the leading equity market, which is devoted to mid and large-size companies
11.
Foxtel
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Foxtel is an Australian pay television company, operating a duopoly in cable television, a monopoly in direct broadcast satellite television, and IPTV catch-up services. It was formed in 1995 through a joint venture established between News Corporation and Telstra, both of the owning companies are 50% shareholders. It shares many features with the Sky service in the United Kingdom, including iQ, the program guide, a similar remote control. On 23 October 1995, Foxtel commenced a 20 channel service, in May 1998, Australis Media, the owner of a satellite television service known as Galaxy, was declared insolvent. In February 1999, Foxtel began offering its own service to new customers. Publishing and Broadcasting Limited bought half of News Corporations shares in October 1998, in 2002, a Content Sharing Agreement between Foxtel and Optus Television was approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The Austar shares have been suspended on the ASX as of 16 April 2012, the takeover was completed on 24 May 2012. News Corporation acquired Consolidated Media Holdings in November 2012, bringing its stake to 50%, on 15 June 2015, Foxtel officially agreed to buyout 15% shares in Ten Network Holdings, pending the approval from the ACCC. Prior to the acquisition, Discovery backed out from bidding partnership with Foxtel, as of 2012, Fox Sports channels, in particular Fox Footy, average between 90,000 and 300,000 + viewers for NRL/AFL matches throughout the week. The highest rated light entertainment shows are The Simpsons most weeknights on Fox8 with around 110,000 viewers, A&E has also recorded healthy audience numbers for its TruTV & A&E US syndicated shows from the US – Pawn Stars, Hardcore Pawn, and Storage Wars. BBC UKTV also consistently rates well with British soaps EastEnders and Coronation Street, Foxtel transmits its cable service via Telstra hybrid fibre-coaxial cable into the Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth metropolitan areas, along with the Gold Coast. Foxtel on Mobile launched on Telstras Next G Network in late 2006 and is now available within Telstra Next G coverage areas, in 2002, Foxtel and Optus Television agreed to a content-sharing arrangement. Programming competition between the two companies has now dissipated, prior to its acquisition by Foxtel in 2011, Austar, a regional pay television operator, also carried most Foxtel programming. In April 2008, Foxtels penetration into Australian homes passed 30% and this penetration rate is significantly lower compared with market penetration rates in the US and in Western Europe. This is due to the fact that Australian pay-TV fees are significantly more expensive, Foxtel announced its maiden annual profit in 2006, more than 10 years after it commenced services. The installation and maintenance of Foxtel services is Telstras responsibility, in many markets Telstra has outsourced installation and maintenance to large communications contractors, including ABB Communications and Siemens-Thiess Communications Joint Venture. In 2007, Network Ten formed an agreement with Foxtel to allow them to carry a version of Tens programming. Included in the deal is electronic program guide data, which allows Foxtel iQ users to schedule recordings on Ten, before the agreement, Ten was carried in an analogue format on cable only
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