TELECOMNEXT: Speakers oppose 'Net neutrality laws
By: By Carol Wilson
LAS VEGAS -- TelecomNext provided a diversity of keynote speakers on its opening day but they all agreed on one issue – Internet neutrality. ...
TELECOMNEXT: Little telecom in TelecomNext
By: By Tim McElligott
LAS VEGAS--The launch of the event that is supposed to answer the question about where the industry goes from here, TelecomNext, provided an answer in two hours of keynote speeches yesterday when almost 20% of allotted time for hearing directly from the industry’s foremost leaders was consumed by music videos. ...
TELECOMNEXT: Broadwing launches media service
By: By Carol Wilson
Hoping to ride the booming interest in IPTV, Broadwing today announced a fiber-based real-time media multicast service that enables broadcast and content distribution companies to distribute to multiple locations from its 180-network point of presence....
mPhase puts together “telco starter kit”
By: By Vince Vittore
mPhase Technologies this week will launch what it’s coined “IPTV in a Box” that packages together virtually everything a carrier would need to launch video service for $500 per subscriber....
Pulver fires up himself at VON
By: By Tim McElligott
SAN JOSE--Jeff Pulver, CEO of pulver.com, has been called a technology guru by no less than BusinessWeek. But by his own admission this week, as he addressed the throng of 8000 attendees at his VON Conference in San Jose, Calif., when he started his mission to advance voice and video on the Internet 10 years ago, he didn’t have a clue--at least about telecom....
IPTV Survey: Early adopters willing to try service
By: By Vince Vittore
Telcos hoping to cash in on initial interest in IP-based video services might want to consider a very traditional strategy—discounts, according to a survey by In-Stat and sponsored by Siemens Communications....
NCTA blasts House franchise move, RCN mixed
By: By Dan O'Shea
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association Thursday blasted the reported agreement among U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee members to issue national video franchise legislation for telcos. Meanwhile, competitive service provider RCN issued its own statement saying it would be happy that cable TV giants are being kept on a short leash, but unhappy with legislation that would allow major telcos to roam free of local video franchising authorities....
OFC: BellSouth Chief Architect warns of HD VOD costs
By: By Ed Gubbins
ANAHEIM—The optical networking industry needs to solve the economic crunch which carriers are anticipating with the arrival of video-on-demand, BellSouth’s Chief Architect Henry Kafka implored his cohorts this morning at the Optical Fiber Communication/National Fiber Optics Engineers Conference...
OFC: IPTV requires AT&T to deploy 400 ROADM nodes in ’06
By: By Ed Gubbins
ANAHEIM--Reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs)play a crucial role in enabling IPTV, G. Keith Cambron, senior vice president of AT&T Labs, said this morning at the Optical Fiber Communication/National Fiber Optics Engineers Conference....
SkyStream's zBand hones in on MovieBeam
By: By Vince Vittore
SkyStream announced that MovieBeam is using the vendor’s zBand content delivery platform as part of a renewed push to bring video on demand service to most major metropolitan areas in the U.S. ...
Wisconsin consortium locks down with Latens
By: By Vince Vittore
Latens Systems said it has landed a deal with Midwest TelNet, a consortium of 13 independent telcos in southwest Wisconsin, to provide its conditional access solution as part of Midwest TelNet’s IPTV service...
Indiana okays state video franchise
Indiana’s General Assembly has become the second in the nation to approve a statewide video franchising process. A bill giving exclusive franchise authority to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission now awaits Gov. Mitch Daniel’s signature....
Canby Telephone comes full circle with a twist on video
By: By Vince Vittore
In 2001, Canby Telephone Association sold its incumbent cable operation to Willamette Broadband in a transaction that was fairly typical...
Leap of faith
By: By Vince Vittore
Independents are moving to MPEG-4--with or without set-top boxes...
BellSouth gets more SupportSoft
By: By Carol Wilson
BellSouth today announced an extension of its current use of SupportSoft online customer support software to include its broadband wireless services, wireline-wireless integration and its IPTV trial....
Virginia compromises on video franchises
By: By Carol Wilson
The Virginia General Assembly has agreed on a compromise video regulation measure that speeds the entry of telephone companies into video service but requires greater investment on their part....
Pannaway builds an Empire
By: By Vince Vittore
Pannaway Technologies announced today that Empire Telephone, an 8400-line independent based in Prattsburgh, NY, is deploying SIP-based voice-over-IP service using a combination of Nortel and Pannaway products...
Siemens looks outside for middleware
By: By Vince Vittore
Middleware vendor ANT Software announced today that Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices (SHC) has licensed its Galio Client to create TV services across a range of devices. ...
InFocus: How to compete against DBS and cable
By: By Geoff Burke
For the better part of the last decade, people have scoffed at the idea that communications service providers could compete head-to-head with entertainment service providers such as cable and satellite and win. However, over the last year RBOCs have committed billions of dollars to IPTV. The technology seems viable, but can it be successful?...
IPTV's biggest challenge: Growing the market
By: By Vince Vittore
At the heart of the battle over whether telcos should be required to obtain local video franchises lies one almost inescapable fact...
IPTV consolidation opens new doors
By: By Vince Vittore
Tandberg Television's $80 million acquisition of SkyStream consolidates two headend players that fit well together geographically as well as from a product perspective...
BATM CEO: PON is wrong route
By: By Vince Vittore
Declaring that the passive optical network (PON) has too many limitations, Zvi Marcom, CEO of BATM, the parent company of Telco Systems, said carriers are making a mistake by not implementing active Ethernet architectures...
Dueling ads target video franchise rules
By: By Carol Wilson
Things could get ugly as both the telephone and cable industries launch advertising campaigns on video franchising rules. ...
In-home management key to IPTV future
By: By Vince Vittore
If telcos are to be successful with their IPTV offerings one of the biggest hurdles to overcome will be dealing with in-home networks, according to a recent analysis from Multimedia Research Group...
Coalition pushes FCC franchise process
By: By Vince Vittore
A day after the Federal Communications Commission issued its annual report on video competition, Consumers for Cable Choice filed a request asking the FCC to update its cable franchising process...
