• SCTE Foundation announces Q4 grants
By CED staff
The SCTE Foundation has announced the seven grants that were approved for members of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers during the fourth quarter of 2009. One of the grants was provided to Robert Dignum of Yelm, Wash., as previously announced by the Foundation.
The other six grant recipients during the fourth quarter were:
- Lowell Flanner, Sunflower Broadband
- Erik Jenson, Cogeco Cable
- Gary Paulson, Comcast Cable
- Brent Sager, Broadband Solutions
- David Stuart, in-transition member
- Amelia Urban, Jones/NCTI
The fourth quarter’s SCTE Foundation grants were earmarked for such purposes as SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2009, Jones/NCTI courses, a bachelor’s degree program and an industry certification program.
• Maine co. to lay 1,100 miles of fiber-optic cable
By The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – A new company is promising to lay 1,100 miles of fiber-optic cable across Maine to help expand high-speed Internet service to remote parts of the state.
Maine Fiber Co. will use $25.4 million in stimulus funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce to help build a high-capacity rural broadband network.
Starting this spring, Maine Fiber will begin installing the fiber-optic cable for the Three Ring Binder project. The project will provide broadband service within more than 100 rural Maine communities for 110,000 households, 600 community institutions and 38 government facilities that are not served today.
• NDS adds TV Genius to partner program
By CED staff
NDS has landed TV Genius for its NDS Recommendations Engine Partner Program. NDS will offer TV Genius’ services to its customers as a partner in recommendations engine-based initiatives.
TV Genius offers a three-screen solution based on more than 20 deployments in seven countries.
“Relevance and accuracy of search functionality are central to the success of any recommendations engine. Our search algorithm is the only one to have been designed from the ground up to work with TV-related content. Having been optimized over the last three years, the algorithm produces a level of quality and relevance that is unmatched across the industry,” said Tom Weiss, CEO of TV Genius. “We believe this partnership with NDS will help extend our reach to key players in the pay-TV industry to the benefit of subscribers and operators.”
• Alvarion to reveal WiMAX devices in Barcelona
By Maisie Ramsay, Wireless Week
Alvarion says it will unveil more than 20 end-user WiMAX devices at next week’s Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona, Spain. The devices will include embedded WiMAX laptops, netbooks, a variety of USB dongles, mobile Internet devices, ultra-mobile personal computers and personal hotspots.
Alvarion is showcasing the devices as part of its Open WiMAX device strategy, which the company launched to help build out the WiMAX ecosystem. The company also tests third-party devices through its partner interoperability testing (IOT) program.
The devices will be connected to WiMAX base stations and will demonstrate what Alvarion termed “innovative applications.” Alvarion made no specific mention of a WiMAX handset for demonstration.
