Telco

Could U-verse face a second-half slowdown?

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:31:38 -0400

All eyes in the telecom industry seem to be on AT&T, as the telco is set to report second quarter earnings tomorrow. AT&T of course has not said much, but numerous analysts and media outlets are anticipating the telco will report accelerated landline loss. It remains to be seen whether AT&T will keep up its past pattern of posting strong subscriber additions for its IPTV service, but some observers are forecasting that AT&T may slow roll-out progress and spending on its U-verse network for the rest of this year. Tune back in to FierceIPTV later this week for a closer look at AT&T's IPTV progress.

For more:
- check out this coverage at Light Reading

Related articles:
AT&T added 148,000 U-verse TV customers in the first quarter. AT&T report
AT&T still is considered a cable TV provider in Connecticut. AT&T report

SureWest adds channels, plans growth

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:15:03 -0400

Independent teclo SureWest Communications said earlier this month that it is adding 18 new high-definition channels in its Kansas City market, the property that came to SureWest via its acquisition of Everest Broadband. The telco also said it is planning for its service to reach 10,000 more homes in the area by the end of this year, an expansion that will include communities in both Missouri and Kansas.

While major telcos and cable TV companies have entered an HD arms race as they continue to pile up HD channels, small telcos and cable TV companies are starting to ramp up HD efforts as well. SureWest's announcement came shortly after cable TV player RCN announced an HD channel expansion in its New York market.

For more:
- read this story at Xchange
- see this post at HD-report

Related articles:
SureWest saw its first quarter numbers jump after the Everest acquisition. SureWest report
SureWest also offers a home monitoring service. SureWest report

Verizon continues analog phase-out

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:50:06 -0400

Verizon Communications earlier this year began the process of phasing out analog broadcast in some of its East Coast markets. On July 21, Maryland and Northern Virginia will be added to the program, which already has seen Verizon stop using analog signals for its FiOS TV services in New Jersey, Massachusetts and New York.

The telco informed the Federal Communications Commission last year that it would eliminate analog channel delivery in advance of the agency's all-digital mandate set to take effect in February 2009. The move allowed the telco to qualify for a waiver on deploying set-top boxes with embedded security functions.

For more:
- see this post at Multichannel News

Related articles:
The digital TV transition may help cable TV providers competitively. Digital TV report
Verizon phased out analog transmission in New York in April. Verizon report

BT rolls on with FTTH project, upgrades Home Hub

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:11:02 -0400

BT, which had been testing a fiber-to-the-home architecture in the U.K. community of Ebbsfleet earlier this year, said it is committing to a broader FTTH network roll-out with an investment of around $3 billion. The company mentioned IPTV and high-definition TV as being among the reasons for making the investment. While some regions of the world, such as France, have seen carriers be aggressive early on with fiber projects, U.K. broadband deployments have been characterized more by technologies like ADSL2+. BT said the fiber push will reach 10 million homes by 2012, but some observers already are saying that the spending commitment by BT indicates a cautious and limited roll-out plan.

In other IPTV-related news at BT, the carrier has introduced a new wireless router for its Home Hub connected home service. The router is based on the 802.11n WiFi specification, and it greatly improves coverage range, security and other aspects of the telco's Home Hub service.

For more:
- read this story at ZDNet.co.uk
- check out this Home Hub coverage at Connected Home News

Related articles:
BT was nowhere near making a fiber commitment two years ago. BT report
BT recently sold content delivery firm Assethouse to Amino Technologies. BT report

Comstar to buy Ural with eye on IPTV

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:24:08 -0400

Russian telco Comstar United TeleSystems has agreed to acquire the parent firm of Ural Telephone Company (UTC), an alternative telco in Russia's Ural Federal District, for $43.3 million. The deal brings Comstar 61,000 new customers, and is the latest in a string of acquisitions that also included the recent buys of Digital Telephone Networks and Interlink Group.

Comstar already offers IPTV and related services in some regions of Russia, and the company said UTC will soon offer IPTV and expand its broadband service offerings.

For more:
- read this story at Total Telecom

Related articles:
Russia's Corbina Telecom has been aiming for an IPTV launch Corbina report
Pay TV may still be strong in Russia as IPTV finds its footing Pay TV report

AT&T notifies Dish partnership to end

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:17:06 -0400

Satellite TV player Dish Network reported in an SEC filing Tuesday that AT&T had informed Dish that it is ending the companies resale partnership effective Dec. 31. AT&T has not said much at all about why it is terminating the partnership, only that it is fulfilling contract requirements by providing Dish with six months notice. Still, the move is not too much of a surprise, considering that AT&T recently asked Dish to buy back $500 million of Dish debt the telco owned. Also, while AT&T ended a resale relationship with DirecTV earlier this year--leaving Dish as AT&T's exclusive satellite partner--it was well known that AT&T still was evaluating its overall need for satellite as it continues to have solid success with IPTV.

AT&T's silence on the matter could mean it is still sizing up whether or not it will need a satellite partner in the future. At one point some months ago, there were rumors circulating that AT&T could even acquire Dish Network.

For more:
see this story at Multichannel News

Related articles:
AT&T's debt request last week raised questions about the Dish relationship AT&T report
Dish Network last month said it would get more aggressive Dish Network report

Open IPTV membership grows

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:20:46 -0400

The Open IPTV Forum, a group promoting development of IPTV's interactive and personalization features, announced that it has gained 11 new member companies since April of this year, and is continuing to make progress on specification development. The new members include: Swisscom, FastWeb, Intel, Motorola, Access Company, BeeTV, Digital Fountain, InterTrust Technology Corporation, Opera Software, Thomson and ZyXEL. Rumors of additional membership had been circulating in recent weeks.

Forum members met last month at the headquarters of Telefónica in Madrid. The group already has produced the first draft of its "Service and Platform Requirements" document, and Forum Chairman Yun Chao Hu said in a statement that members "are working round the clock to meet our target of publishing Release 1 in September this year. Release 1 will solve the problem of fragmentation within the market by standardizing an IPTV framework, enabling a 'plug and play' experience for the end-user and, by ensuring interoperability, will make IPTV independent of the technology behind it."

For more:
- see this forum press release

Related articles:
The Open IPTV Forum launched in March of 2007 Open IPTV Forum report
Amino joined the Open IPTV Forum earlier this year Amino report

China Telecom moves toward 1 million IPTV customers

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:26:34 -0400

China's telecom industry is currently undergoing an extreme makeover that will result in fewer large carriers and a fully converged industry in which all carriers offer mobile and fixed line options to some degree. So, perhaps the country's emerging IPTV market has been somewhat overlooked. China Telecom, the nation's largest wireline telco, just reported that its had more than 940,000 IPTV customers as of May this year.

The service is available mostly in cities such as Shanghai, Jiangxu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shaanxi. The company launched IPTV a few years ago, but growth has moved at a modest pace thus far. China Telecom reportedly has recently been shopping for IPTV set-top boxes, looking to put in an order for as many as 574,000. Alternative wireline operator China Netcom also has offered IPTV services for a number of years, and Hong Kong's PCCW was among the first telco in the world to have success with IPTV.

For more:
- check out this coverage at China Knowledge

Related articles:
China experienced some IPTV growing pains early on China report
China Netcom rolled out IPTV with vendor ZTE China Netcom report

RFD-TV to run on Verizon FiOS

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:03:33 -0400

RFD-TV, an eight-year-old TV network focused on rural America that already reaches about 32 million homes, has signed a multi-year distribution agreement with Verizon to run over the telco's FiOS network on a nationwide basis. FiOS can already contribute another 1.2 million or so homes served to the RFD-TV cause, but RFD-TV official also likely had an eye on the 6.5 million homes that the FiOS network passes.

For more:
- see this coverage at Multichannel News

Related articles:
Verizon cleared the 1.2 million TV customer mark earlier this year Verizon report
Verizon and AT&T both boosted their content offerings late last year Verizon report

IPTV vendors recognize small telco challenge

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:49:10 -0400

Just about every vendor of telecom hardware or software has the common dream--sometimes realistic, sometimes not--of landing deployment deals with Tier 1 carriers like AT&T and Verizon Communications. Even some of the vendors who claim not to have this dream would completely change their models overnight if AT&T came calling. The market for IPTV gear has been no different, as developers of IPTV middleware and other technology have lined up to compete for business at the biggest telcos.

However, while a Tier 1 deployment can help make or break an IPTV technology vendor, so can the lack of anything else but a Tier 1 deployment. With the IPTV roll-outs by Tier 1 telcos now well in hand, many vendors are turning their attention toward smaller independent telcos. These companies represent a vast market of very small opportunities, and one-size-fits-all vendor approaches need not apply. That means adapting existing IPTV gear and software to the unique cost and scalability needs of the small guys. Vendors like Innovate Systems, Quative and Thomson are just of few of the vendors currently making the effort.

For more:
- see this report at Telephony

Related articles:
SureWest is one independent telco that is making IPTV work SureWest report
Canadian independent Bruce Telecom is an IPTV player worth watching Bruce Telecom report