DSL

SPOTLIGHT: nTelos: Video quality strikes a chord

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:59:00 -0400

Pivot Media, the consulting firm sharply focused on rural telco issues, held a webinar last week that offered some words of wisdom on marketing the triple play. Glen Butler, director of technology planning at Waynesboro, Va.-based telco nTelos, presented a case study of his company's experience offering triple play to customers in Virginia and West Virginia, though some of his more intriguing comments had to do with the video part of the triple play bundle:

"When you enter the video business, there is pent-up demand, but people are also much less patient with their video connection than with the voice connection," Butler said of the importance of service quality. "The number of calls we get about video are much higher than when voice goes out."

Butler said nTelos started offering video services last October over a fiber-to-the-home gigabit passive optical network architecture. He said the company chose FTC over DSL or other technologies because it needed to make a fresh market impact. "When you are the third market entrant [with video], you are competing against the undecided," he said. "We would have to work hard to keep up with speeds DSL and cable already offer, so we decided that if we were going to spend the money, we would rather be superior. We decided to move ahead, rather than keep up."

For more:
- read this Editor's Corner on the Pivot Media webinar at FierceTelecom.com

Mossberg Blesses Web Video, Bashes Broadband Before iPhone Tease

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 06:59:10 -0400

Wall Street Journal technology columnist Walt Mossberg, or "Uncle Walt" to his fans, last week declared that the web is becoming a video medium. However, he went on to bash existing U.S. broadband networks as compared to the rest of the world, deeming it a problem for delivering video over the Internet. The comments, made during an executive summit held by Beet.tv last week, were overshadowed by the noted curmudgeon stating that the Apple iPhone will be "3G in 60 days."

For more:
- Read the News.com blog post here.
- "The Web is Becoming a Video Medium," Declares Walt Mossberg here.
- Watch Uncle Walt's DSL comments on beet.tv

Related articles:
A disruptive change of face for IPTV
Analyst: Infineon-powered 3G iPhone by June?

No Yankees please

Tom Burton — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 06:59:30 -0500

Light Reading is a respected player in the technology media world but its recent top ten Global IPTV carriers has caused controversy. The survey confirmed France as the leading IPTV market with French carriers taking out three positions, including Iliad which was number one. Verizon's U.S. based FiOS TV service and its 700,000 plus customers would have walked it in to the number four slot if not for a definition technicality. FiOS TV is delivered by fiber optic cable and while the interactivity is IP based, the actual TV signal is sent by an overlay network using the radio frequency spectrum.

Similarly Google's YouTube with its tens of millions of users would have won easily, but was vetoed because it is not delivered by a dedicated DSL or fiber line. Such line drawing confirms just how quickly some industry structures have become out dated and how dynamic the surging Internet video industry is. The days are long gone when IPTV could be considered a telco only domain.

For more:
- Light Reading's Top Ten Global IPTV carriers Article
- No US carriers in top ten list Article

Collecting the money could be the hard part

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 06:59:30 -0400

Moving from being a transport utility where the only job is to swipe a credit card for shuffling bits down a pipe to managing a complex array of payments for various content usage is one of the biggest challenges facing the IPTV industry.

Today's broadband billing systems are classically simple reflecting a single payment for a certain amount of bandwidth. But when a customer has found an IPTV package the broadband provider will need to work out who needs to be paid what from the subscription price, adapted to subscription packages and offers. This can prove an immensely complex process and will require effective settlement management solutions.

"Such a complicated process needs an automated settlement system in the deployment of IPTV solutions, since working out by hand who is owed what and for what period of time for thousands, let alone millions, of customers is not practical and highly error prone," writes Mark Denton for vnunet.com.

For More:
- Making IPTV profitable Report
- NewVoiceMedia launches new credit card payment service Report

Related Articles:
VeriFone, POSitouch Partner for Mobile Payment Processing Solution Report
ATIS develops OSS/BSS requirements Report

IPTV grows fivefold in two years

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 06:59:50 -0400

The DSL Forum released IPTV penetration statistics this week that chart a fivefold increase in subscribers from 2005 to mid-2007. As of June 30, the worldwide subscriber base for IPTV services reached 8.2 million, up from nearly 1.5 million on the same date in 2005.

Europe accounts for more than 60 percent of subscriber base, with nearly 5 million households hooked up to IPTV, half of them in France. The Asia Pacific region is next, with nearly 2.2 million. Hong Kong is the anchor there, with 938,000 subscribers. The Americas combined have just over 1 million IPTV subscribers.

The research was carried out by Point-Topic, a research firm in London. Point-Topic senior analyst John Bosnell said content and "clear bundle pricing" attract subscribers to IPTV. It also helps that the technology has cleared the tipping point.

For More:
- See the DSL Forum release here
- A blogger at telnect notes the uphill climb for IPTV in the United States, where cable and satellite dominate multichannel TV, here

Related Articles:
Verizon FiOS TV now has 500K subscribers Report
Telcos bet biz model on TV Report

Telcos bet biz model on TV

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:59:55 -0400

About 100 or so small to mid-sized phone companies across the country have deployed some form of IPTV service--mostly for self-preservation. Here's a brief perspective from four telco executives:

"We're trying to make our access line service more sticky. That's why we did it," said Phil Erli, executive vice president of Ringgold Telephone Co. of Ringgold, Ga. Ringgold has 23,000 access lines and 4,600 DSL subscribers. IPTV was launched there three years ago and now has 2,000 subscribers. "I won't say it worked. We've lost about 10 percent of our base since we went into this business. It's certainly different than being a wireline telephone company. It's made us be creative."

Keith Galitz is in the same game, as president of Canby Telecom, a local phone company in Canby, Ore., with 10,700 access lines and 52 percent penetration for DSL lines. Canby launched an MPEG-2 IPTV operation two years ago that now has 1,055 subscribers. "It's a question of whether you would have lost 10 percent or 40 percent without it," Galitz said. "It's really about the bundle."

West Kentucky Rural Telephone south of St. Louis recently deployed IP-Prime, and had 250 takers before the official launch. "Ten years ago, we had a video service, and the only calls we got was when it went out," said West Kentucky chief Trevor Bonstetter. "My wife asked me if we were crazy when we went in again a year ago. Every day now I get up and call and check. How many problems did we have last night? Did we have glitches? Did boxes freeze up? I didn't do that for 10 years. That's the challenge we have with bleeding edge technology."

Surewest of Sacramento, Calif., was one of the first telcos out with IPTV, in early 2004, and the first to offer HD in 2005. Surewest comprises a traditional ILEC with 125,000 access lines and a CLEC in which fiber deployment started five years ago. "IPTV allows us to leapfrog typical TV capabilities," said Surewest Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Bill DeMuth. "With it comes all the headaches we've been talking about."

As with West Kentucky, TV isn't entirely new for telephone companies, but most had a cable infrastructure. IPTV requires an entirely new platform and the skills inherent in a technology shift.

"We've had to learn to be a lot more self-sufficient," Erli said. "We've had to learn to do things, to make things work. We use ADSL2-plus. We had to figure out ways to go to a customers house and make that work. We had to be more innovative. Whether IPTV is the right example, it's IP, which we all believe it going to be the wave of the future."

Bonstetter recalled hooking up DMS switches as a consultant for Nortel early in his career. "I was hired at my first co-op to go build their networks. They had one digital switch, and the rest was analog. It was a big step from analog to digital, and now from digital to an IP network. That's a cultural task."

The staff had been maintaining the telephone network "one way for years and years," he said. "We've started giving bonuses to staff when they go through 10 weeks of IP training, from the person who answers the phone to the person who gets on the computer at the house," he said. "I took it."

Next week, FierceIPTV will relate the obstacles, frustrations and the ultimate goals for these four innovators in IPTV. As always, send your thoughts and feedback to dmcadams@fiercemarkets.com.

FiOS subs experience copper deficiency

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 06:59:10 -0400

It seems the early FiOS subscribers are discovering they are tethered to glass. A wire service article making the rounds last week noted that Verizon is routinely cutting the copper on households opting for FiOS fiber-optic service. Folks were fired up over losing the option of going back to cheaper DSL service.

Verizon responded that it provided repeated warnings that there was no turning back after taking FiOS, including a written notification on the website. A notification is, indeed, on the site, 460 words into the collapsible 40 percent grayscale, 7-point print disclaimer: "Current Verizon Online High Speed Internet customers who move to FiOS Internet service will have their Verizon Online High Speed Internet permanently disabled after their FiOS conversion."

In Verizon's defense, it makes no business sense for the company to maintain dormant wires, particularly given the booming price of copper. However, in an article subsequent to the wire story, a Verizon rep said the copper was not removed, but merely disconnected, and could be reconnected if "a customer insists."

For more:
- George Ou comments on the FiOS dynamics here
- Verizon tells North Texans they can go back to copper here

SPOTLIGHT: iP2-TV to launch with 2MB IPTV/VOD service

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 20:00:40 -0400

iP2-TV is launching its IPTV/VOD solution using a Motorola set-top box this summer. The solution makes use of a compression algorithm that the company says allows it to deliver a quality signal on a 2 Mbps consumer DSL/cable line. The service promises "unlimited" channels of content along with video on demand (VOD). The company is also currently raising its first external round of financing. Release

ALSO NOTED: Gates' privacy law; TiVo partners with EarthLink, Amazon; and much more...

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:00:00 -0500

> Gates pushes for digital privacy law. Might enable personalized IPTV advertising. Article

> TiVo goes live with Amazon Unbox partnership. Article

> Associated Press looks to expand its online video platform. Article

> Which of the top 75 online video sharing sites pay for posting? Release

> EarthLink teams with TiVo for DSL service. Article

And Finally... Study predicts that the U.S. will have 18 million fiber subscribers by 2011. Article

RELEASE: MDUs provide huge marketing opportunity for urban DSL

Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:49:03 -0500

Multi-Dwelling Units Providing Major Opportunity for Urban DSL Deployment in North America DSL Broadband Services Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs) in large North American cities will provide a significant market opportunity for telcos offering DSL-based broadband services, according to a new study from ABI Research. MDUs â€” apartment buildings and other large residential blocks â€” in densely-populated European and Asian cities have been provided with triple-play services over fiber and DSL networks for some time. But North America, with its sprawling suburbs and rural regions, has so far seen less interest in triple-play broadband MDU solutions. That is starting to change, however, as companies such as Verizon, with a coverage area that includes New York, Boston, and Washington DC, see an opportunity to offer video services to affluent, high-value urban customers via a combination of fiber and VDSL2. "VDSL2 is a good way for telcos to deliver voice, video, and high-speed data services," says principal analyst Michael Arden, "but it is only viable over short runs of copper wire. Delivering services to the basement of a large building via fiber, and then on to individual dwellings over short lengths of copper, creates a huge potential. They could make real inroads into cable operators' markets." This also presents a new opportunity for some companies providing equipment to the $3 billion global DSL market. "Many companies that have supplied RBOCs in the past have been North American," notes Arden; "companies such as Lucent and Nortel. They haven't had as much experience in the MDU market as some of their European and Asian counterparts. But now vendors that have been active in this area in Europe and Asia â€” companies like Hitachi, Alcatel and Siemens â€” are starting to get more traction." Because they already enjoy significant volumes from their overseas markets, they are able to offer North American telcos a range of products that are competitive on price as well as quality. To be successful, Arden cautions, fiber/VDSL2 systems must be scalable. "Every MDU is different in size and construction, so a solution that can use whatever kind of fiber and copper is already in place is a key requirement." The new ABI Research study, "DSL Broadband Services", explores the trends driving DSL adoption, regional deployment patterns, the value of the DSL market, and the cost structure of DSL. It forms part of the company's Broadband Networks Research Service, which includes a variety of Research Reports and Research Briefs, ABI Insights, and analyst inquiry support. Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York, ABI Research maintains global operations supporting annual research programs, intelligence services and market reports in broadband and multimedia, RFID & contactless, M2M, wireless connectivity, mobile wireless, transportation, and emerging technologies. For information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.