KT goes live with IPTV
By Brian Santo
Korea Telecom (KT) launched its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) based service yesterday (July 4), offering voice, data and IPTV services.
KT is delivering IPTV through high-definition set-top boxes from Humax and Samsung, both of which are KT’s consortium partners for the country’s IPTV service. Both vendors’ boxes are based on STMicroelectronics’ STi710x family of HDTV AVC decoder chips.
LG-Nortel, another consortium partner for the service, is also developing its set-top boxes based on the STi710x, according to STMicrolectronics.
The service provides more than 1,200 on-demand titles, and 27 interactive services, ranging from education to finance to instant messaging. An electronic program guide and user-created content are also available. Other KT IPTV services include: digital photos and personalized stock; plus weather and sports information.
Unbiased broadband penetration increasing
By Traci Patterson
The penetration of broadband Internet in U.S. households has accelerated the development and growth of on-demand video and music technologies, generating what the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) has coined the “exaflood” – an explosion of content straining the Internet’s capacity.
According to a recent Pew Internet & American Life Project report, income and race are becoming less important differentiators in U.S. broadband adoption. Another recent study by The Brookings Institution links broadband penetration rates with U.S. employment growth.
The Pew study found that home broadband use by African-American adults rose to 40 percent, up from less than 15 percent in 2005. And 31 percent of rural Americans now have home broadband connections, compared with 49 percent and 52 percent of suburban and urban residents, respectively.
Sandvine adds customers, increases revenue
By Traci Patterson
Sandvine brought in $18.9 million in revenue for Q2 2007, up 171 percent year-on-year.
Net income for the quarter was $9.7 million, up from a net loss of $473,024 in Q2 2006.
In the quarter, Sandvine added seven new customers, including one Tier 1 company and five DSL companies. Sandvine now has more than 80 customers, which serve more than 40 million broadband subs in 30 different countries.
Recently, Sandvine completed its acquisitions of CableMatrix Technologies Inc. and Simplicita Software Inc.
Broadband Briefs for 7/5/07
* AsusTek products based on Ikanos chip
AsusTek Computer has introduced a security gateway and a home router, both based on the Fusiv Vx200 processor from Ikanos Communications. AsusTek’s SL1200 security gateway and RX3042H broadband router were both designed for small office/home office (SoHo) and small and medium enterprise (SME) applications.
* Research and Markets adds satellite offering
Research and Markets has added “Impact Analysis – Satellite Transmission Standards” to its offering. The service analyzes the impact of standards based on two-way satellite broadband VSAT systems and describes technologies such as S-DOCSIS, DVB-RCS and IPoS.