Swisscom launches Microsoft IPTV 

By: By Ed Gubbins

Switzerland’s incumbent telco launched an IPTV service today similar to AT&T’s U-Verse service...

Writing the book on IPTV quality 

By: By Dan O'Shea

Service providers now rolling out IPTV services probably would not agree with the notion that they are making it up as they go along, since that would be an insult to the strategists and technicians who have put hours upon years into the ongoing transformation of telcos into video providers. Yet when you consider how the industry is approaching quality of service for IPTV, it's difficult to come away with any other impression, at least at first glance...

IneoQuest fills quality management gap for IP video 

By: By Tim McElligott

IneoQuest, a five-year-old test solutions company based in Mansfield, Mass, introduced a premises-based quality assurance solution for IPTV this week as well as an end-to-end video management system...

AT&T revenues jump, U-verse ‘on track’ 

By: By Carol Wilson

AT&T reported a 74% increase in third-quarter revenues, based on wireless growth, improved wireline performance and faster-than-expected integration of AT&T and SBC Communications...

FCC opens video inquiry 

By: By Carol Wilson

The Federal Communications Commission today said it will conduct an assessment of competition in the video market, to include the impact of Internet-based video and IPTV...

Comptel: TI unveils residential gateway products 

By: By Carol Wilson

ORLANDO--Texas Instruments this morning announced five new solutions for manufacturers of residential gateways, based on its UR8 processor architecture. The new xDSL chips are aimed at enabling maximum flexibility and functionality in the design of residential gateway products...

Verizon details FTTP cost curves and ROI 

In a lengthy presentation Wednesday morning, Verizon Communications chief financial officer Doreen Toben illuminated the future trajectory of costs and returns associated with the company’s FiOS fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) deployment....

Verizon: National video franchises unnecessary 

Though Verizon Communications has helped wage a legislative battle this year to enable nationwide franchising for video service, the carrier claims not to need a federal franchise to meet its video market penetration goals....

Verizon touts FiOS market, cost-cutting success 

By: By Carol Wilson

Verizon today issued its own report card for its FiOS fiber-to-the-premises network and services, seeking to show the investment community that the $18 billion, six-year investment strategy deserves an ‘A.’...

Report: Cable bundles a big triumph 

By: By Carol Wilson

Cable service bundles are not only luring telephone service customers, but they have helped stem the tide of video customers to satellite services...

Motorola acquires another VOD vendor 

Motorola today announced another acquisition meant to bolster its video-on-demand (VOD) portfolio today, purchasing software vendor Vertasent for an undisclosed sum. ...

A Telephony Podcast: Fall VON Recap 

This year’s Fall VON show expanded on its traditional focus on voice over IP to encompass video, in the form of both IPTV (the topic of Telephony’s IPTV Workshop at the show) and video on the Net. Telephony’s Carol Wilson delineates the two and analyzes the future of both IP video and VoIP in the service provider sector...

Fingerprint-based IPTV remote control debuts 

By: By Joan Engebretson

Service providers developing the product road map for their IPTV services recognize that the user interface will play a critical role in how the offers are accepted. Joining the wealth of user interface options is a remote control platform announced this month by European manufacturer Ruwido that uses family members’ fingerprints to control system operation...

AT&T inks first cable content deal 

By: By Carol Wilson

AT&T and Comcast have signed a distribution deal that will enable AT&T to deliver Comcast video channels over its U-verse IPTV service...

VON: Vertek’s new MBA program no sheepskin 

By: By Tim McElligott

BOSTON--To be successful in business often requires an MBA degree, but at Fall 2006 VON, Vertek introduced an MBA program for business partnerships. The hosted Managed Business Assurance program ensures the profitability and viability of partnerships formed for the delivery of new digital content services...

VON: Start-up hopes to be more than a blip 

By: By Carol Wilson

BOSTON--A New York-based start-up is trying to get ahead of the video-on-the-Internet wave, hoping not to get swamped...

VON: TV over IP about to explode 

By: By Carol Wilson

BOSTON--While telecom service providers scramble to launch IPTV, the TV over the Internet movement is taking off on its own, promising to bring diverse programming to PCs and television sets everywhere. So hot is TV over IP that it took over the opening keynote session of the VON conference...

A TelephonyOnline Podcast: IPTV and Consumer Habit 

TelephonyOnline talks to Neale Martin, an industry futurist and a keynote speaker at Telephony’s IPTV Workshop next week at VON in Boston, about consumer behavior and how it could impact the introduction of IPTV. Hear Martin’s views on how what service providers need to do to make their video offerings different...

Homemade comparison: cable versus IPTV 

By: By Carol Wilson

An industry public relations professional who happens to be part of AT&T’s U-verse rollout in San Antonio has opened the doors of his home to the world, offering a real-life comparison of IPTV and digital cable....

Cable gains ground while IPTV stalls 

By: By Ed Gubbins

Strong revenue and earnings growth in the second quarter suggests bright near-term prospects for cable companies in their war against the Bells, Merrill Lynch wrote in a research note released today...

Cisco buys Arroyo Video Solutions 

By: By Carol Wilson

Cisco Systems Monday night announced it has acquired Arroyo Video Solutions, a maker of video networking software, as it develops a major video strategy...

Harmonic intros new MPEG-4 encoders 

By: By Ed Gubbins

Harmonic introduced a new MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) standard-definition (SD) encoder today...

In the Spotlight: Diane Smith, Auroras 

By: By Tim McElligott

Diane Smith is CEO of Auroras. Auroras is a start-up that is about to commercially launch its head-end-in-the-sky (HITS) after a trial with 3 Rivers Communications and others. A HITS is a satellite-based content distribution system for IPTV. IPTV content has been hard to come by. Smith talked to Telephony’s Tim McElligott about her company, how she got there and why the time is right for a company like Auroras, even if it is way out in Kalispell, Mont....

The home network, rewired 

By: By Dan O'Shea

IPTV is helping the telecom industry envision a new type of home network involving service to multiple devices and content-sharing between all of them. Yet a single vision for the in-home wiring necessary remains elusive...

Leapstone provides must-have options for IPTV 

By: By Tim McElligott

At a pace of three-to-four software releases per year, five-year old, Somerset, NJ-based Leapstone Systems introduced its latest this week, which includes functionality essential for all U.S.-based IPTV providers: blackout management...