TiVo available in Mexico City through Cablevision
By Brian Santo
Beginning today, Mexico’s Cablevision is offering TiVo DVRs and the TiVo Service to its digital cable subscribers in Mexico City.
TiVo service is being offered to Cablevision subscribers as a package with a monthly charge covering both service and box rental. TiVo said this will mark the first Spanish language version of its user interface.
Cablevision CEO Jean-Paul Broc said the company is “confident that the TiVo brand will not only increase customer loyalty, but serve as a driver of new cable subscribers.”
Cablevision has a subscriber base of more than 525,000 for digital cable TV and more than 120,000 for high-speed Internet in the Mexico City metropolitan area.
GigaBeam launches wireless service in Spain
By Mike Robuck
GigaBeam has landed in Spain for the first time with a contract to provide its wireless service to an unnamed university.
GigaBeam’s wireless service, which it calls WiFiber, will be used by the university as part of an ongoing project conducted by the company’s partner, F2-Tel, Ingenieria de Telecomunicacion.
GigaBeam’s goal is to retrofit major metropolitan areas around the world with its wireless technology that is able to use existing telecom infrastructures to provide broadband speeds equal to 1,000 DSL lines. GigaBeam connects directly to a city’s fiber-optic hub or a point-of-presence to provide its links.
“I believe Spain represents a large and potentially lucrative market for our WiFiber family of products,” said Louis Slaughter, chairman and CEO of GigaBeam. “We see new regions coming on a regular basis and it is exciting to see that our first sale in Spain is also a major university.”
GigaBeam’s products operate in the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz upper millimeter wave spectrum bands. The Federal Communications Commission and the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) and other countries have authorized this portion of the spectrum for licensed wireless commercial use.
The company counts Google, Sprint, the Department of Defense and several cities and universities among its customers in the United States.
Occam Networks restates quarterly results
By Mike Robuck
Occam Networks has restated results for fiscal 2004, 2005 and the first three quarters of fiscal 2006 because of errors in its historical revenue recognition practices.
On Sunday, the company’s board of directors, based upon the recommendation of its audit committee, decided the company needed to restate the two fiscal years and three quarters of 2006.
The company expects that about $5 million of previously recorded revenue will be deferred as of December 31, 2006 and that, as a result, the net pre-tax loss for fiscal years 2004-2006, taken together, will increase by approximately $2 million.
In the aggregate, approximately $33 million of revenue recognized for fiscal years 2004-2006 was recorded prematurely, though all but the $5 million estimated deferral was ultimately recognizable prior to December 31, 2006. The aggregate of Occam’s previously reported and announced revenue for this period was $125 million, but now it estimates that the aggregate adjusted revenue for this period will be around $120 million.
In the past, Occam has received notices from the NASDAQ stock market that said the company wasn’t in compliance because it hadn’t filed certain periodic reports with the SEC. On Tuesday, Occam received a letter from the NASDAQ that said a panel had granted the company’s request for continued listing on the stock market through Oct. 15, subject to certain conditions.
Occam’s broadband loop carrier portfolio helps service providers offer voice, video, broadband and IPTV services over both copper and fiber.
Broadband Briefs for 9/13/07
* DaqTron completes acquisition of Filtronic’s DOCSIS line
By Traci Patterson
DaqTron Inc. has completed its acquisition of the DOCSIS product line of Filtronic Signal Solutions’ Sigtek division.
DaqTron is moving forward with new product developments and upgrades for the FSS DOCSIS products. The company is implementing DOCSIS 3.0 in its Jupiter testing solution and the ST-260. The ST-260 is a key component of Jupiter, which tests broadband data equipment for the cable data transmission industry.
* J:COM increases household reach, RGUs
By Traci Patterson
As of Aug. 31, Jupiter Telecommunications Co. (J:COM), Japan’s largest MSO, reached more than 2.7 million households through its 21 managed franchises – an increase of 21.4 percent year-on-year.
Combined RGUs for cable TV, high-speed Internet and telephony services reached 4.75 million, up 20.9 percent year-on-year. The digital migration rate increased to 62 percent, up from 46 percent a year ago.