IP Capsule – June 29, 2007

SCTE rolls out IP certification, increases Expo attendance
The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) rolled out a new certification program at the Cable-Tec Expo last week-Internet Protocol Engineering Professional (IPEP).

The new credential certifies a candidate’s knowledge of the engineering aspects of IP networks, as deployed in the cable and telecommunications industries, and the scope includes theory, design, performance analysis, testing, integration, troubleshooting, deployment and operation of IP networks.

AT&T U-verse expanding in Ohio…
AT&T U-verse continues to propagate, most recently expanding into a number of neighborhoods in the Cleveland and Akron markets.

AT&T U-verse services are initially available in parts of the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor metropolitan statistical area (MSA), including Bay Village, Berea, Broadview Heights, Brooklyn, Euclid, Fairview Park, Lakewood, Lyndhurst, Mayfield Heights, Mentor, North Royalton, Orange, Solon, South Euclid, Warrensville Heights, Westlake, Willoughby Hills and Willowick.

In and near Akron, U-verse is available in parts of Cuyahoga Falls, Fairlawn, Kent, Munroe Falls, Silver Lake, and Stow.

Verizon extends FiOS in N.Y., broadband in Ohio
Verizon is extending its FiOS triple play into a number of new areas in New York State, and has also rolled out the network for voice and data services in parts of Ohio.

Verizon said FiOS TV is now available in parts of Bayville, the Town of North Hempstead, New Hyde Park, Sands Point, the Town of Haverstraw, West Haverstraw, Chestnut Ridge and the Town of North Castle, including the unincorporated hamlets within each of the eight towns.

Verizon said it has also has been granted franchises by Mount Pleasant and Old Field and will launch FiOS TV in those communities soon.

Internet TV revenue to grow nearly 14-fold by 2011
The market for Internet TV service will rise to $5.79 billion in 2011, up over an order of magnitude from $422.7 million in 2006, iSuppli Corp. predicted.

While the early market for Internet TV delivered to PCs has created growth and excitement, the real disruptive opportunity is yet to come, the research organization said. As more consumer electronic devices like TVs, DVD players, game consoles, iPods and portable gadgets become web-connected, Internet TV will leap from computer screens into the consumer’s primary media environment: the living room TV.

“Internet video is dominated by news content currently as that is easily consumed in a ‘snack’ format on PC screens,” said Frank Dickson, principal analyst with iSuppli. “However, as Internet connections find their way to the living room TV and the digital transition drives an installed base of new set-top boxes, sports and entertainment content will populate Internet Protocol (IP) streams. The longer form content will drive bandwidth requirements and revenue, threatening the dominance of ‘walled gardens.'”

An interesting finding, with “interesting” defined as “involving really, really big numbers,” is that the bandwidth required for Internet TV will grow by more than 44 times from 2006 to 2011 to almost 7 million tebibytes (TiBs).

A terabyte is 10 to the 12th power; a tebibyte is 10 to the 40th power. Just in case you were wondering.

Enea & Kontron make a play for IPTV market position
Enea and Kontron announced what they’re calling “the IPTV Experience,” which they’re describing as “a broad-based industry initiative aimed at bringing high quality IPTV to the consumer mainstream faster.”

The broad base includes sponsors Intel and Radvision.

Presumably Enea and Kontron expect the base to become broader.

The idea is to draw together a group of companies in the software, hardware and semiconductor industries, which can provide off-the-shelf components of a carrier class platform on which to build an IPTV service.

Occam adds SIP VoIP to Centennial’s business services
Centennial de Puerto Rico, the second largest telecommunications service provider in the commonwealth, is using equipment from Occam Networks to add Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) voice functionality to its line-up of fiber-to-the-business (FTTB) Ethernet services.

Centennial has purchased and deployed Occam’s Broadband Loop Carrier (BLC) system, including Occam’s BLC 6312 Optical Line Terminal Blades, BLC 6440-01 Optical Packet Transport Blades and 2342 Optical Fiber Network Terminals (ONTs).

Telus relies on Brix to monitor VoIP quality
Telus is using products from Brix Systems to conduct both active (on-demand) and passive (live) VoIP call monitoring in order to analyze the signaling and media across its backbone network. The Brix System is integrated into Telus’ operational support system (OSS) in order to provide a transitional road map from legacy back office support to IP-based service assurance solutions based on open standards, Telus said.

EarthLink Inc.’s board of directors has named Rolla P. Huff as the company’s new president and CEO. Huff previously served as the chairman and CEO at Mpower Communications, a facilities-based provider of voice and data services. Prior to Mpower, he served as president and COO, and earlier as CFO, of Frontier Corp. until its acquisition in 1999.

Verizon trickles out more DSL
Verizon has extended its DSL footprint to cover about 6,400 additional potential customers in Ashland, Bellevue, Bowling Green, Brunswick, Bryan, Celina, Cheshire Center, Delaware, Englewood, Lodi, Logan, Marion, Montrose, North Baltimore, Norwalk, Oberlin, Sylvania, Wadsworth and Waverly, all in Ohio.

The fastest plan in those areas will be 3 Mbps service, for $19.99 a month for the first six months and $29.99 a month thereafter, with a one-year commitment.