HDTV

Panhandle goes with Entone for HD IPTV

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 09:26:22 -0400

Oklahoma's Panhandle Telephone Cooperative, Inc (PTCI), already an experienced IPTV carrier, is deploying new high-definition IPTV services with the help of Entone Communications. The vendor is supplying PTCI with its Hydra IP video gateway and Amulet HD IPTV receiver.

The telco, based in Guymon, Okla., serves parts of Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. It wants to offer more advanced services, such as whole-home network applications, HDTV, on-screen caller ID and interactivity, without having to spend excessively to re-wire customer homes. PTCI has been in the IPTV business for at least six years and was among the first U.S. telcos to launch IPTV.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
PTCI was one of our Fierce 15 IPTV Innovators last year. PTCI report
Entone and Minerva Networks teamed up for a whole-home DVR solution. Entone report

Verizon adds 176,000 FiOS TV subs, launches in NYC

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:43:29 -0400

As part of its second quarter earnings report, Verizon Communications said it added 176,000 FiOS TV subscribers. That figure is not as impressive as Verizon's first quarter TV customer additions of 263,000. Verizon did not seem surprised by the drop-off, alluding to a free HDTV promotion that had run its course. Analysts may have been a bit more surprised, according to a story at Multichannel News. Verizon now has a total TV tally of more than 1.4 million subscribers.

The telco also chose Monday to officially launch FiOS TV in New York City, saying the service initially is in reach of about 340,000 Big Apple households. Verizon, which received regulatory appoval for the launch earlier this month, said it plans to pass 500,000 households by the end of the year, and cover all of New York City within six years.

For more:
- see this coverage of Verizon's subs at Multichannel News
- read more about the NYC launch in this Associated Press story

Related articles:
Verizon recently received state regulatory approval for the NYC launch. Verizon report
Verizon added 263,000 FiOS TV subscribers in the first quarter. Verizon report

Spotlight: Two rural telcos tap Comtrend

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:43:27 -0400

Two rural telcos have separately chosen Comtrend to deliver ADSL2+ bonded residential gateways to support the rollout of IPTV services. The bonded aspect allows the gateways to support up to 48 Mbps downstream bandwidth. The vendor's Nexuslink gateways also will help the telcos--Bayland Telephone of Wisconsin and Rural Telephone of Kansas--support HDTV services.

For more:
- check out this coverage at IPTV News

Telekom Austria doing HD, time-shifting

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:10:52 -0400

Telekom Austria is making an IPTV push, upgrading its aonTV service with the help of Alcatel-Lucent to offer time-shifted TV and HDTV capabilities. The telco also is working on expanding availability of the service throughout this year, as it is currently available only to slightly more than 50 percent of the country, according to TeleGeography. Most of the deployments have been over ADSL2+ in urban areas and, thus far, Telekom Austria has made no commitment to use fiber-to-the-home to reach into less dense markets, despite major competition from incumbent cable TV and satellite TV players.

For more:
- read this post at TeleGeography
- here's more about Telekom Austria's approach from a story last fall at Telecommunications

Related article:
Telekom Austria's global IPTV ranking Telekom Austria IPTV report

Networks ready for HD programming pile-up?

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:50 -0400

High-definition television always has been viewed as a nice benefit of new TV delivery technologies, but 2008 may prove to be the year HDTV becomes a significant battlefield in the competitive war between telco IPTV players and their cable TV foes. The race to supply consumers with the most HDTV channels and hours of on-demand HD programming may have been sparked by Verizon Communications, which announced late last year it would deliver 150 linear HDTV channels by the end of this year. However, Verizon may have been responding to more subtle HTDV upticks from cable TV and satellite TV firms.

While providers continue to pile on the HD channels and programming hours, it is worth wondering how an abundance of HDTV could affect network bandwidth and provider set-top box offerings. With its FiOS network, Verizon claims to be built for high volumes of HD programming, though it also primarily has MPEG-2 set-top boxes in circulation, much less efficient than MPEG-4 boxes at handling that programming. Cable TV companies are in the midst of rolling out network upgrades to better support growing HD traffic, and the analog-to-digital transition will help.

For more:
- read this report at Multichannel News

Related articles:
- Verizon Communications announced its 2008 HDTV plans late last year. Verizon report
- Fewer Channels better quality. HDTV quality report

SureWest chooses ADB set-top boxes

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:59:40 -0400

Independent telco SureWest Communications will deploy HDTV set-top boxes with DVR capabilities from Advanced Digital Broadcast. The telco, one of the pioneering IPTV players in the U.S. market, offers 50 HD channels, and the ADB set-top will allow SureWest customers to record to MPEG-4 HD channels while watching another stored channel.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
SureWest made our list of Fierce 15 IPTV Innovators last fall
SureWest launches VoIP, HD DVR services SureWest report

Verizon: High-tech households driving GPON

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:59:10 -0400

Michael Daigle, vice president of network planning at Verizon Communications, sees the multi-user, multi-device home as the major driver for the telco's ongoing deployment of gigabit passive optical networking technology. Verizon now has GPON in about 40 of its 600 central offices, and while the 2.4 Gbps bandwidth is not needed everywhere, the pattern for demand has a lot to do with those larger, high-tech-heavy households, Daigle told Light Reading.

Verizon likely will be increasing its GPON footprint throughout this year as central offices currently supported by broadband PON get converted to GPON. It is not clear how many actual FiOS customers are now served by GPON. Beyond GPON, Verizon is eyeing the possible evolution to WDM-PON, though that could be at least two years away, and Verizon official say the technology and its advantages need to mature further before a commitment is made.

For more:
- see this report at Light Reading

Related articles:
- GPON drove Ericsson's acquisition of Entrisphere late last year. GPON report
- Tellabs GPON move leads to more questions Tellabs report

Middleware frustrations stymie HD rollout

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:59:10 -0400

A number of regional telcos are learning first hand about the pain of moving to HD. As the satellite and cable operators aggressively ramp up their HD offerings--although a rocket failure has delayed both EchoStar and now DirecTV's rollout timetable--the regional IPTV players are under pressure to match the HD offerings. But according to Telephony a number of regional IPTV operators in Minnesota were facing delays getting a HD service rolled out because they don't have the middleware upgrade. They use a Nokia Siemens provider, Myrio, for their middle ware.

How much is a middleware problem and how much a deployment and cost issue is hard to work out. To upgrade to HD requires a more sophisticated set top box with a bigger hard drive for the DVR and it is this upgrade cost which the smaller players are also struggling with. Myrio did not respond to our questions, but the marketing manager was quoted saying the carriers were learning just how complex IPTV was--a patronizing quote sure to endear the operators even more to the European software provider.

Over the winter there has been a sharp increase in the number of HD channels being offered by all providers, although in some cases it is still a pseudo HD rather than the real thing. This is especially so with some of the cable operators. Also contentious has been limitations on the U-verse service which currently allows for only one HD service to enter the home at any one time.

For more:
- Middleware snags delay HD rollout Telephony Article

Related articles:
Who has the most HD TV Article
SureWest recently launched a HD DVR Article

ALSO NOTED: Spirent demos analyzer; EchoStar HD satellite falters; and much more...

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:58:20 -0400

> Spirent demos IPTV analyzer and network emulator Article

> EchoStar HDTV rollout delayed after satellite problem Article

FiOS runs out of televisions

Tom Burton — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 07:59:20 -0400

Verizon's high-profile campaign to sign up FiOS subs by offering a free 19-inch Sharp HD television has become an embarrassment after Verizon had to admit the televisions would take up to 15 weeks to arrive. The nearly four-month delay prompted Verizon to write to FiOS subscribers offering them an alternative Magnates TV or a $200 Best Buy gift card. It has also withdrawn the offer.

Verizon said the delay was because Sharp has not been able to meet the demand. Verizon added 226,000 new IPTV subscribers in the final quarter in 2007 and expected to maintain that rate into 2008. Verizon also faced a delay in HDTV set-top boxes, which it said was also a supply problem with its vendor Motorola. The shortage came after a spike in orders during the holiday season saw subscriber numbers soar over a million, making the IPTV service the 10th biggest provider of television in the country.

For more:
- Still waiting for that TV Article

Related articles:
Verizon FiOS hits a million subs Article
Verizon promised FiOS would be profitable by 2010 Release