A look inside the ‘OTI’
Now that the dust has settled from the Comcast-Cisco-Nortel
Open Transport Initiative (OTI), the three companies are rolling
up their sleeves and getting down to work.

Since the Dec. 12 announcement, five study groups have been
established to explore and share optical and transmission
intelligence, with a gaggle of vendors submitting proposals
to each study group, says Al Lounsbury, senior manager of
global cable solutions marketing at Nortel.

Once the proposals have been reviewed, a select number of
vendors will be invited to the study group. "The physical
aspects are being broken down into five study groups. The
challenge will be taking a product and technology to market,"
he says.

Nortel’s place at the OTI table was determined by its eDCO
(electronic Dynamically Compensating Optics), which extends
wavelength distances and reduces network planning and engineering
costs. "That’s why we were the optical winner in the
first place," he notes.

Other companies from the vendor community are participating
in OTI discussions, with several expected to be announced
soon, says John Leddy, vice president of network and transport
engineering for Comcast, which is leading the OTI. The business
aspects, he adds, are being discussed "at the highest
levels."

Cisco and its CRS-1 Routing System (shown) are key components to the interoperability initiative.

MSO Charter Communications will likely join the OTI soon,
with others expected to follow. "There’s no reason why
they couldn’t participate," Leddy maintains.

Whether they participate or not, they’re certainly watching
how the OTI evolves. "All the MSOs are looking at Comcast
and the outcome of OTI," Lounsbury says.

And OTI’s initial objectives? "Interoperability, management
definitions and getting standardized with vendors," Leddy
says. And the end game? "Moving traditional closed platforms
in the optics space towards IP-based open standards,"
he adds.

No word yet on Scientific-Atlanta’s involvement, though it’s
inevitable they’ll join OTI based on the fact that it is in
the process of being acquired by Cisco.

As the OTI expands, and it will, look for the momentum to
build toward a large quantity, cost-effective use of IP-bandwidth.

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

Starz line up for OEN
OEN
(Optical Entertainment Network) will offer all 13 Starz
and Encore
channels to its subscribers, along with the Starz HD feed
and Starz On Demand service via its fiber-fed "Fision"
service in Houston, Texas.

Fision is OEN’s IP video, Internet and voice service, reaching
1.6 million households in Houston, the company reports. It
represents one of the larger IPTV deployments yet, with more
than 400 TV channels (including 50 HD channels) and an integrated
triple-play service that also includes VOD and home security
applications.

On the data front, Fision will offer speeds of 10 Mpbs to
100 Mbps. The company will also serve up original programming
from OEN’s production arm, Optical Entertainment Network.

And the IPTV parade continues.

And so will the revenue…….
Analysts at Research
and Markets Group predict an IPTV market of 16.65
million users by 2009, with revenues of $16.7 billion. Content
providers will take most of the share. Enterprise advertising
spending on IPTV will increase to $6.7 billion in 2009, the
research group also predicts. And, once on-demand advertising
begins to get traction, IPTV providers will likely capture
a growing portion of that market as well.

Motorola builds in MoCA
Motorola
has added some family members. Its new three-product QIP family
includes the QIP6416, a HD-capable, dual-tuner DVR; the QIP6200
single-HD tuner set top box; and the QIP 2500 single-tuner
standard-definition model. Motorola rolled out its QIP series
earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las
Vegas.

The QIP family, Motorola says, is the first to include built-in
home media networking capabilities, and supports MoCA
(Multimedia over Coaxial Alliance), a home networking platform
that pipes information at up to 270 Mbps. The upside for QIP?
In addition to using existing coaxial cables found in consumers’
homes, it also supports both IP- and QAM-based video services.

Verizon‘s
FiOS TV is the first to enlist Motorola’s new QIP series.

XSPACE expands NDSA offerings
NDS Group‘s
hybrid set-top box (STB) software platform has added XSPACE,
an end-to-end platform for broadcast operators and Internet
content providers to support delivery of on-line entertainment
and media services over integrated broadcast/IP set-top boxes.

The software allows customer access to hyperlinks using an
onscreen link and is built on a set of NDS technologies, including
a number of broadcast IP solutions.

Alcatel and MoCA hook up
Alcatel
has joined MoCA
(Multimedia over Coax Alliance) as an associate member, representing
a key vendor to join the expanding group.

Alcatel’s entry in MoCA is another indication of the expanding
role not only of the alliance but of company’s such as Alcatel,
which is pushing the delivery of converged voice and high
bandwidth services, along with HD and DVD quality video and
digital entertainment through a "whole house" approach.

Some other notable members include Comcast Communications,
Cox Communications, EchoStar Communications, Entropic Communications,
Linksys, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Verizon.

Whaleback weighs in with
SMB 1500
Whaleback
Systems, a developer of business phone solutions for
broadband, has released the SMB 1500, a PBX system built to
support IP from the ground up.

The IP PBX also features a Key System Unit that enables shared
and bridged line appearances, intercom with hands-free response
and group paging. It can also connect multiple offices, mobile
employees and telecommuters, the company adds.

Chipping away at the chipset
market
The Wireless LAN (WLAN) chipset market, thought not the sexiest
industry around, is nonetheless growing at an impressive clip.
It’s predicted to reach 140 million annual units in 2005,
a whopping growth curve upwards of more than 50 percent, reports
research group In-Stat.

Chipset revenues are expected to reach nearly $1 billion,
or a 27 percent annual revenue growth rate. And the Wi-Fi
chipset market should grow to 430 million in annual unit shipments
by 2009. Why the buzz in the chipset market? Rapid price decreases
and versatility, along with new segments such as CE and phone,
In-Stat says.

Shaw’s VoIP numbers in
Vancouver head north
Shaw Communications
has launched VoIP in Vancouver, the company’s fifth
VoIP market to be added in the past year. VoIP is now available
to the company’s 1.7 million homes passed by its broadband
network. Next up for Shaw? Moving VoIP into additional Vancouver
communities.

CableLabs heads toward DOCSIS
3.0
CableLabs
is nearing a release date of its DOCSIS 3.0 draft documents
to the NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) community. A key benefit
to the 3.0 specification, says Michelle Kuska, vice president
of broadband access for CableLabs, is statistical multiplexing.
"With 3.0, more people will have a higher peak capacity
for their cable modems, and there’s unlimited address space
with the IPv6 protocol," she notes.

Channel bonding is a key component, as well, supporting the
fusion of at least four channels and downstream/upstream speeds
of 160 Mbps/120 Mbps.

The technical content, Kuska adds, is in the draft documents
now and awaiting review. Once that process takes place, the
drafts will be released to the NDA group.

Charter signs on with Affinegy

Charter
Communications has agreed to offer Affinegy‘s
"InstaLAN" software to the MSO’s home networking
and high-speed data customers.

InstaLan is a self-install and self-management software for
home wireless and broadband networks. It runs on Windows programs
and is compatible with devices from other network equipment
vendors such as Linksys and Netgear. Its purpose? To reduce
customer support and operator truck roll expenses expense,
and to speed advanced service deployments.

And the research says…

The 20 largest U.S. DSL and cable providers acquired a record
2.6 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers
in the third quarter of 2005, reports Leichtman
Research Group (LRG). The top broadband providers
now account for more than 40.2 million high-speed Internet
subscribers. Cable maintained its market lead with more than
23.2 million broadband subs, followed by DSL’s 17 million,
LRG says.

An ominous number for cable is the record 1.42 million subscribers
added by the top DSL providers in the period, representing
54 percent of the net broadband additions. Cable added 1.2
million subs.

Lucent
Technologies is convinced the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem)
will re-define next-gen architecture for service providers,
and is even willing to adopt a new slogan to prove it. Called
"A Game Changer," Lucent has made IMS a key strategic
direction for the company, reports In-Stat. Why? It will help
them grow revenues, improve time-to-market for new services,
and achieve cost savings through an optimized, converged network
architecture for wireline and wireless services.