IP Capsule E-Newsletter, December 22, 2005

Holding off on IPTV
Verizon Communications Inc.’s FiOS TV, the company’s video
service now deployed in parts of Florida, Texas and Virginia,
and SeaChange International’s IP Video Systems are combining
to bring thousands of hours of on demand movies to a growing
telco TV market, but don’t hold your breath for a quick “IP
paradigm shift,” cautioned Stuart Elby, vice president of
network architecture and enterprise technology for Verizon,
who spoke at a recent Light Reading Telecom Investment
Conference.

Elby admitted the technology isn’t ready for a full IPTV
deployment, at least until 2007, but Verizon, to hasten its
quest for early revenue, "didn’t want to wait, even if
we could do it in stages," he said. The big issue? "Technically
speaking, the problem is getting highly scalable IP multicast.
Nobody has ever built an IP multicast network on that scale
before," he said.

Akin to cable’s present approach, Verizon is presently using
an RF overlay to deliver video services, although running
IPTV all the way to the home is on the roadmap.

That’s not the only problem. Maintaining the reliability
and service quality of two super headends in different parts
of the country and the on-going OSS and IT challenges must
be addressed as well, the company has reported. It has developed
40 new support systems for the network transformation to a
FTTP (fiber-to-the-premises) broadband network.

And there’s more. Spending billions of dollars on network
upgrades, rolling out services with unproven IPTV platforms,
and navigating the difficult acquisition process are expected
to slow down IPTV’s progress, reported a recent Forrester
Research study.

Nevertheless, Verizon’s vision, Elby concluded, is to base
its network on IP technologies, whether it’s via a combination
of MPLS, VoIP or IP Multimedia System (IMS), which, in turn,
will allow the company to push out any type of service to
any kind of new device, according to a Light Reading
report.

Just don’t look for that vision to turn to reality for a
few years.

Editor’s note: IP Capsule wishes everyone
a joyful holiday season. IP Capsule will return on
January 11, 2006. Cheers!

—Craig
Kuhl, IP Capsule Editor, and CED Magazine
Contributing Editor

Digeo, Comporium get their
IPTV feet wet

Digeo tapped the existing Ethernet port of the Moxi platform for its IPTV trial work with Comporium.

Digeo Inc.
and Comporium
have completed a set of IP-based multi-room DVR tests in about
six homes in Rock Hill and Charlotte, N.C. They tested several
situations, including multi-stream HD DVR over a fiber-to-the-home
network; multi-stream standard definition DVR applications over
DSL; and multi-room distribution of live and recorded content
over IP. Digeo’s cable-centric Moxi Media Center was the key
component, and was able to handle IPTV services without any
modifications on the hardware, said Digeo CEO Mike Fidler. Comporium
also used the Moxi Mate device for multi-room DVR tests.

IPTV players are expected to benefit most from the tests,
Fidler said. “They are coming third into the video play (following
cable and DBS) and they need something that is compelling
and meets or exceeds expectations from a consumer’s [standpoint].”

Coaxsys doubles networking
speed
Coaxsys
Inc. is set to unveil a new iteration of its Ethernet-over-coax
networking platform that pushes speeds to 200 Mbps.

Powered by silicon from STMicroelectronics,
Coaxsys’ latest TVnet system will bow officially at next month’s
Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The initial generation of Coaxsys’ TVnet technology was designed
to deliver speeds as high as 104 Mbps over distances up to
250 feet. Several telcos are using the gear to distribute
IP-based video services over existing home coax, essentially
eliminating the need for homes to be outfitted with Cat-5
cabling. Coaxsys also has cut integration deals with IP set-top
providers such as Amino
Communictions. Entone
Technologies offers a similar approach with its “Hydra”
gateway product line.

Coaxsys’ latest entrant is also equipped to compete with
other next-gen home networking technologies such as HomePlug
AV and 802.11n. It also pushes speeds closer to the 270 Mbps
proposed by the Multimedia
over Coax Alliance, an effort that includes support
from Comcast
Cable, EchoStar
Communications, and chipmaker Entropic
Communications.

Coaxsys, however, has reached the market first, claiming
to have deployed “tens of thousands” of TVnet adapters thus
far.

Conexant chips away in
China
Conexant
Systems Inc. and Coship Electronics Co. Ltd., China’s
largest manufacturer of set-top boxes (STBs), will base its
new Anysight220c IP receiver on the chipmaker’s MPEG-4/H.264
high definition digital broadcast television platform. Coship’s
IP STB is scheduled for a January deployment in Asia. Coship’s
IP STB is based on three Conexant’s chips.

And the research says…
Kagan Research
is projecting the residential average revenue per unit (ARPU)
to soar from $72.89 per month in 2004 to $143.15 per month
by 2015. The reason? Some bullish predictions on future deployments
of advanced services and the continuing access to capital
markets. There’s a pattern of growth as well. Cable has doubled
its ARPU in the past 10 years, even as DBS has grown from
zero to 25 million subscribers.

And in the bundling space, following Comcast and Time Warner
Cable’s decision to offer family viewing bundles prompted
by the pressure on the cable industry to offer a la carte
packages, Kagan reports that the price per network is actually
dropping, with the average package increased to 64 national
basic cable channels today from 27 channels ten years ago.
And, subscribers are now paying about $1.49 per day. Cable
operators are paying an average of 21 cents per subscriber
per month for each channel in its big basic package in 2005,
the report maintained.

BellSouth and 8×8 hook up
for VoIP
BellSouth
Corp. and 8×8
Inc. have signed an agreement which calls for 8×8
to provide technology, integration and operational services
for BellSouth Digital Phone Service.

The agreement means 8×8 will develop a suite of VoIP service
components including a call switching platform, feature servers,
customer portals and consumer premise equipment. BellSouth
is simultaneously pushing ahead with its IPTV strategy and
“no new wires” technology, while looking at various models
to bring content into the home, which ties in with the company’s
overall video, voice and data strategy. And the strategy is?
Everything IP.

Jabber’s Jingle opens new
version of protocols
The Jabber
Software Foundation (JSF) has published initial documentation
of Jingle, a set of extensions to the Extensible Messaging
and Presence Protocol (XMPP), an Internet standard for presence,
real-time messaging for use in VoIP, video and other peer-to-peer
multimedia sessions.

The value in Jingle’s protocols lies in their ability for
the Jabber community, which includes a number of open source
projects and companies, to build a wide range of new applications,
from voice and video to file sharing and gaming. Google is
the top dog supporting the protocols.

Comcast launches VoIP service
in Maryland and Northern Virginia
Comcast Communications
continued its VoIP rollout to include Maryland and Northern
Virginia. The company now offers the service in 20 markets
and by 2006, plans to reach more than 15 million homes. A
notable difference over voice services that use the public
Internet, however, is that Comcast’s VoIP travels over its
proprietary managed network, the company notes.

NexTone University opens
higher ed VoIP class
NexTone
Communications is launching its NexTone University
to offer network engineers and architects a means to create
a “new generation of session-layer networking experts,” the
company said. With real-time IP session management becoming
a crucial component to a carrier’s success in the IP space,
interconnecting VoIP, wireless and IP Multimedia Subsystems
(IMS) calls for some serious education. Hence, NexTone’s focus
on VoIP and other digital media applications.

NexTone has been operating a pilot program in the UK for
several months, the company said. Registration begins in January
2006.

JDSU’s HST-3000

JDSU passes test, ships
500 handheld VoIP service testers
JDSU
shipped more than 500 of its HST-3000 handheld service testers
to “one of the largest” U.S. telecommunications service providers
for ADSL2/2+ and IP video testing, the company said.

The handheld tester is designed to meet the growing requirements
of field technicians responsible for access network service
installation and maintenance. It can test all triple play
services as well.

Texas electric company gets
bullish on BPL
TXU Electric
Delivery and Current
Communications Group have forged a deal to broadband-enable
TXU’s power grid.

Under a 10-year, $150 million deal, Current has signed on
to design, build and operate the broadband over powerline
(BPL) network, which will offer high-speed data services to
about 2 million homes and businesses in the Dallas-Forth Worth
area, and other parts of Texas.

They expect to begin the BPL network deployment in 2006.

The resulting “Smart Grid” will be based on BPL overlay technology
from Current. In addition to data services, the companies
hope to offer video and voice services.

TXU Corp., the parent of TXU Electric Delivery, said it will
become an equity holder in Current, joining companies such
as Google
Inc., The Hearst Corp. and Liberty Associated Partners.

AT&T will use 2Wire’s HomePortal 3000 series.

2Wire delivers IP gateways
to AT&T
2Wire Inc.
will deliver IP-based residential gateways for AT&T’s
U-verse suite of services.

The gateway will provide AT&T with a home network that will
provide IP-based services throughout the home, including IP-based
video, high-speed Internet access and eventually VoIP. AT&T
has already signed on Motorola
and Scientific-Atlanta
to supply IP-based set-tops for the U-verse video service.

Place your bets on gambling online. Revenues from online gambling
are expected to increase from $1.1 billion in 2005 to more
than $3.5 billion in 2009, says research group, Parks
Associates. Online console gaming, massively multiplayer
online gaming (MMOG), multiplayer Internet gaming and mobile
multiplayer gaming will drive the revenue surge.

The SMB (small and medium business) market is a safe bet
as well. The SMB market for online marketing and advertising
was a whopping $1.3 billion, growing at a 49 percent clip,
reports The
Yankee Group.

Note: A glitch in the distribution process prohibited
some last minute edits in the Dec. 14 issue. Our apologies.
It’s been fixed. —CK