Telus

HomePNA claims top N.A. telcos

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:26:05 -0400

Canadian telco Telus recently became the latest North American telco to adopt HPNA 3.1 technology for home networking, and with that commitment, four of the five largest telcos in North America have chosen the 3.1 standard, according to the HomePNA Alliance.

Steve Rago, principal analyst at iSuppli Corporation, said that more service providers in North America now use HPNA, capable of 320 Mbps bandwidth, for home networking than other coaxial cable home networking solutions. Still, industry observers have noted in the past that carriers are likely to continue to use a variety of home network technologies, depending on what different deployment cases require.

For more:
- see this story at IPTV News

Telus chooses CopperGate for HPNA 3.1

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:36:50 -0400

Canadian telco Telus tapped chipset vendor CopperGate to support the telco's rollout of HomePNA 3.1 as its technology standard for in-home wiring for its Telus TV service, the companies announced today. The solution, which works over both coaxial cables and copper telephone wires, will be integrated into set-top boxes and residential gateways.

HPNA 3.1 is the latest iteration of the HPNA standard, which holds a piece of the fragmented home networking market, along with Multimedia over Coax and other solutions. The 3.1 spec supports guaranteed levels of service, among other features. Telus joins AT&T and other telcos that have deployed the technology.

MTS Allstream readies for expansion

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:16:14 -0400

At the IPTV World Forum North America last month in Chicago, Kelvin Shepherd, president of consumer markets at Canadian IPTV pioneer MTS Allstream, said the carrier was planning to expand outside of its home market of Winnipeg, where it has collected more than 80,000 IPTV customers. The telco is now a step closer to making that happen after gaining regulatory approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to offer service in nearby Portage la Prairie. MTS also has its sights set on Brandon, Manitoba.

MTS Allstream is the largest IPTV service provider in Canada, and Shepherd said at the Chicago event last month, that after almost six years in business, the next phase of IPTV maturity for the telco would be characterized by expansion to counter the reality of increasing competition. Much of it is expected to come from the over-the-top video providers that actually run over telco networks.

For more:
- see this report at Digital Home Canada

Related articles:
MTS Allstream visited Chicago last month. MTS Allstream report
Bell Canada and Ixia have been looking at IPTV quality. Bell Canada report

Verimatrix disputes Widevine patent suit

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:59:30 -0400

Verimatrix, a San Diego content security developer, rejected the patent infringement charges brought about by one if its competitors last week. Widevine, based in Seattle, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Tyler Texas Aug. 1, seeking unspecified damages. Widevine said it sued only after trying to "openly license its intellectual property to Verimatrix."

The plaintiff said the Verimatrix Content Authority System infringed on Widevine patent no. 7,165,175, issued last January for a selective encryption technology. In court papers obtained by FierceIPTV, Widevine said it notified Verimatrix in March of the infringement. "Verimatrix's infringement of the '175 patent has been and continues to be willful," the court filing states. Verimatrix said it would respond "very aggressively" to the lawsuit.

Widevine investors include Cisco, Charter Communications and Telus, while Verimatrix has received support from Siemens and Crescendo Ventures in Palo Alto, Calif.

For more:
- Verimatrix's statement is here
- Widevine's is here