Study: Early adopters like IPTV, but will they buy?
Early adopters are showing their decision-making savvy when
it comes to considering IPTV, which is being defined as a
mix of new interactive television and communications offerings
delivered via broadband and Internet protocol, reports In-Stat.

The study, sponsored by Siemens,
gauges early adopter interest in IPTV, reveals some interesting
numbers. Eighteen percent of early adopters who currently
subscribe to cable or satellite, would “probably” or “definitely”
switch to an IPTV service from their telephone company provider.
Yet given a 10 percent savings offering on an IPTV package,
an additional 34 percent of the remaining non-committed early
adopters would “probably” or “definitely” switch.

Translation: Even tech-savvy early adopters want a good deal
on price. Some other telling stats from the report include:

• The most popular services early adopters were willing
  to pay for included time-shifted TV, video telephony/chat,
  video home surveillance and gaming. The majority said they
  would spend an additional $7.50 a month to get each additional
  service.
• 90 percent said they were interested in time-shifted
  television, and 58 percent said they’d pay for it.

The results, though not real surprising nor dramatic, says
Michelle Abraham, principal analyst for In Stat and author
of the report, should encourage potential providers of IPTV.

“We wanted to see what resonated with customers, and we found
they do want these services, whether from cable or the telcos.
The response was equal in customers’ minds as to who they
would prefer getting the services from. Time-shifted TV definitely
stood out, with the rest probably being a gradual shift,”
Abraham says.

It’s the 50-50 split that probably is the most telling number
of all, however, and is yet another clear signal that to survive
and prosper in the IP video delivery business, it’s price,
marketing and the bundle that will ultimately impact the gradual
shift.

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

Home improvement, real estate
channels add curb appeal
The Real Estate and Home Improvement Channels are moving into
the IPTV neighborhood. The two emerging IP-based broadcasting
networks that deliver customized VOD real estate and home
improvement TV programming to online audiences globally will
debut this fall, according to their parent company, MultiChannel
Ventures.

Video content will include traditional TV programming and
industry created video content from real estate or home improvement
service providers and retailers. “Think of us as launching
two fully interactive video cable networks over the Web for
the entire U.S. real estate and home improvement marketplace,”
says Michael Gerrity, Chairman of MultiChannel Ventures.

What’s the big deal? Think of the announcement as a precursor
to similar types of networks to follow. With the emergence
of long-form content and the growing value of driving viewers
of both TV and online content to packaged, streamed commercials
that offer deeper and wider data about their products and
services, with the ability to click for more information,
the appeal of these interactive networks is expected to appreciate
in value.

And the research says….
Despite the buzz surrounding the potential of IPTV, or more
specifically, telco TV, Kagan
Research is finding the buzz may be just that, with
more style than substance.

It reports that despite “ambitious plans to spend heavily
on fiber upgrades to accommodate video, telcoTV will have
only a minor impact on the overall pay TV landscape in the
near-term.”

Kagan projects that over the next five years, the nation’s
phone companies will gain nearly six million subscribers for
a five percent piece of the multichannel pie by 2010. By end
of 2006, it estimates incumbent phone operators will pass
26.3 million homes with fiber, and by 2010, of the 55 million
homes passed with fiber, 75 percent, or 40 million, will be
video-enabled.

And the telcos’ share of the multichannel market in 2015?
Just 8.5 percent, Kagan predicts.

The Siemens Gigaset C450 is one of several phones that will offer the M34 USB adapter with Yahoo!

Siemens and Yahoo! raising
their voices
Siemens Home and Office Communications Devices LLC, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Siemens
Communications, and Yahoo!
are extending their VoIP calling capabilities to Siemens’
Gigaset Cordless telephones, the companies announced.

The agreement calls for the companies to offer Siemens’ Gigaset
M34 USB adapter, which IP-enables Gigaset telephones with
the VoIP calling capabilities of Yahoo! It will allow users
to make and receive calls through the free PC-to-PC calling
feature of Yahoo Messenger with Voice.

Verso and Georgia Tech
team for post-graduate partnership
Verso Technologies
and the Georgia
Tech Information Security Center will collaborate
on speaking engagements, internships and research projects
in areas such as technical and policy research and on topics
such as VoIP security, mobile security and encryption.

GTISC performs technical research for a variety of projects
that address fundamental challenges to secure applications
and communications, and researches international security
policy issues.

Why the teamwork? GTISC will get real world experience from
Verso, which is a global provider of next generation networks.

ShoreTel getting Extreme
makeover
ShoreTel,
Inc. and Extreme
Networks, Inc. have agreed to work together to provide
joint customers with an “end-to-end” VoIP and data network
solution, the companies said.

The two companies recently completed interoperability tests
with Extreme’s voice-class Ethernet switches.

Cedar Point thinks at Mindspeed
Cedar
Point Communications has selected VoIP processors
from Mindspeed
Technologies Inc., which will find a home inside Cedar
Point’s SAFARI C3, a platform that combines several PacketCable
network elements in one device.

Mindspeed’s suite of VoIP software, combined with its Comcerto
Series processors, will offer a family of semiconductor solutions
for implementing CableLabs’ PacketCable initiative for advanced,
real-time digital multimedia services over two-way cable plant,
the company said.

Bell Labs tolls 107 Gbps

Bell
Labs, the research and development arm of Lucent
Technologies, has reported the first optical transport
of electronically multiplexed 107 Gigabits per second (Gbps)
data, which, the company says, is a significant milestone
in its march toward offering transport speeds of an even loftier
100 Gbps.

The breakthrough, Bell Labs maintains, is crucial to carriers
looking to deploy architectures that are expected to experience
dramatic increases in the amount of IP/data traffic.

Why all the buzz? As carriers look to deploy multimedia IP
services such as IPTV, networks are requiring efficient multiplexing
as they transmit high amounts of IP-based data in its native
Ethernet format.

AT&T speeds access to small-to-mid-size
business
AT&T
Inc. is rolling out its new high-speed access option
for small- and mid-size businesses.

The new service is called AT&T Ultravailable Service Option
2 and is designed to provide an affordable, feature-rich,
end-to-end ring access alternative, the company said. It will
also provide an option for customers requiring Dense Wave
Division Multiplexing (DWDM).

Juniper and NEC expand
partnership
Juniper
Networks, Inc. and NEC
Corp. will jointly develop next-generation networking
solutions for the Japanese carrier market, the companies announced.

The two plan to enable integration of NEC’s advanced optical
component and transmission technology with Juniper’s carrier-class
IP routing platforms to produce multi-terabit solutions with
low power consumption.

In addition, the partners plan to develop agile, open and
customized products based on Juniper Networks’ JUNOS routing
operating system.

UPA completes version one

The Universal
Powerline Association (UPA) has announced the completion
of the first version of its “Digital Home Standard” (DHS)
high-speed powerline networking specification.

The specification will provide a robust field-proven industry
specification which OEMs can build compatible products to
enable the digital home. Work on the specification began in
early 2005.

The combined AT&T/BellSouth will control 22 percent of all
consumer dollars spent on telecom services, including video
services, and 34 percent of the dollars spent in the business
market and 37 percent on wired line phone service, reports
TNS
Telecom.