HomePNA Blog

ITU G.hn Stays On Track

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

Time to get back to work. The G.hn crowd wrapped up another meeting last week – the first meeting of the year and the first since releasing the G.9960 standard last December. The group is continuing to move at the fast pace they set last year with lots of technical contributions, monthly meetings, a goal of closing comments on the next standard before the summer, and wrapping up this phase by Sept. Although I don’t expect products this year or early next, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some very limited field trials of the technology around this time next year.

With G.9960 released last December as promised, G.hn is building an enviable track record. Remember, it’s only been two years since the same group released the world’s first two wire home networking standard (that’s right, I mean HomePNA 3.1/G.9954) -- which was only two years after they released the HomePNA 3.0 standard which set the bar for this generation of high performance triple-play-ready multimedia home networking standards (or in less self-indulgent terms, HomePNA 3.0 was released before MoCA 1 or HomePlug AV). A major release every two years. Not too shabby for a standards group.

People that follow this blog know that HomePNA members support the G.hn effort and that some have been working on it since the HomePNA 3.1 standardization wrapped up. We feel that the more cooperation and support the work has the better the end result will be and that the advantages of a single standard will increase the revenue opportunity for everyone. In that spirit, HomePNA and HomeGrid announced a liaison agreement making it easier for our organizations to cooperate more closely to better support the great work.

Happy Days are Here Again!!

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA Marketing and PR

It turns out AT&T U-Verse subscribers keep coming back for more based on customer satisfaction. Recent reports continue to provide great news on increasing U-Verse subscriber rates increasing each quarter, which makes everyone suffering from the malaise inflicted by too much bad news about the economy, very happy. In turns out that good old-fashioned customer service seems to be keeping subscribers happy and proliferating. While the cable companies cannot latch onto the same bragging rights, IPTV subscribers overall profess to be “very” or “extremely” satisfied with their service provider, according to Strategy Analytics. The report states that 80 percent of 842 U.S. Digital Television subscribers polled, responded they were very satisfied with their Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse service. Meanwhile, competitors in the cable market report “low” satisfaction levels. So, the happy news just keeps coming as millions of couch potatoes settle in for the duration of the winter to sit in front of their cozy IPTV-enabled home entertainment center. Just bring on the popcorn!

Quadruple-Play Ready

A new study released from Compete Inc., a Web analytics company, suggests consumers are ready for quadruple play services (voice, data, video and IPTV) and details telecom companies positioned best to take advantage of the emerging opportunities. It also reported that consumers are driven first by bundled pricing and convenience (no surprise there) and are less concerned about which services are in the bundle -- however they are more interested in bundling broadband access with phone and TV over cellular service somewhat offsetting the advantage of telcos with cellular offerings.  Marketing the offerings is critical. 

We don't find the information particularly revelatory as much as it confirms our observations of the rapidly growing market place where consumers seem to be eating up AT&T's U-Verse service. As we reported in several blogs, U-Verse subscriptions picked up at a dramatic pace in the last two quarters of 2008. While this building momentum may be moderated somewhat (in their last quarter results, AT&T announced that it will slow U-verse deployments slightly and plan to pass 30M homes in 2010 rather than 2009), deployments don't appear to be eclipsed by recent economic woes so we really don't expect to see any abysmal numbers reported in the near future. In fact, we are encouraging service providers to join HomePNA as soon as possible. By becoming a member you will be taking the first steps to dodge the economic bullet. The home networking market in general seems to be a good place to be "playing" if you want to set your sights on higher ground and survive the economic storm.

 

 

Verizon FIOS, AT&T Uverse, and the Recession

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

So much to write about, so little time. I was in the middle of a blog on the positive 4Q results from Netflix and Verizon FIOS last week when I saw the “Recession’s Silver Lining Ringing True?” article from Telecompetitor newsletter -- which said most of what I was going to say and said it pretty well: “But for the telecom sector, there may lay a silver lining. This beacon of light premise suggests that carriers who offer entertainment options may benefit from today’s economic climate. The thinking being that consumers will choose home based entertainment options over going out to save money.”

I would have included AT&T new 264,000 new Uverse TV customers bringing their total to over 1M  (although they did push the goal to pass 30M homes a year to 2011).

One difference between AT&T and Verizon is the penetration. Verizon claims 21% while AT&T’s 1M customers out of 17M homes passed works out to about 6% penetration. So what? AT&T uses VDSL to deliver Uverse over phone wires. When they say they “pass” 17M homes, they mean that they have installed the necessary VDSL equipment near 17M homes. Add a new VDSL line card to one of those equipment cabinets and you connect about a dozen or so new Uverse TV customers. Lot’s of upside there. Verizon’s approach requires them to run a new fiber cable to every new FIOS customer’s house. Either way, TV service is helping these telcos compensate for declining landline businesses while helping to add and retain broadband customers.

Digital TV Transition Delayed

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA Marketing and PR

In what seemed like an obvious turn of events, the switch from analog to digital television has been delayed to June 12. No surprise! Rumblings began a month ago that a delay was likely given that some two million viewers had been put on the "list" to receive their coupon to purchase the converter box. You can't shut off the supply without ensuring all your constituents have a solution – or you can and cause uproar in proportion to a major riot. Americans love their TV! Or "don't take my TV away from me!" If the coupons had gone out in the appropriate timeframe the transition probably would have taken place as projected. Now the government has a few more months to get caught up and send out those coupons. Here in HomePNA land where member AT&T offers a digital solution in the form of U-verse, we feel confident all of those subscribers would have calmly watched the riots – on TV!

The Golden Age of Home Networking

By Michelle Gamble-Risley, director, HomePNA Marketing and PR

We've been discussing the windfall that the home networking industry is experiencing directly tied into our recession (yes, all indicators show we can unfortunately use that word). We are not the only ones noticing the amazing uptick in the home networking market as the economy takes a downward turn. Advance Television.com recently publicized a report that in the United Kingdom an upsurge in HD television has come as an unexpected turn of events during the recent credit crunch. Their report supports other theories that users are running for cover straight into their homes and noticing their television maybe isn't sexy enough. If you're not going to partake in your favorite pastime (a.k.a., shopping) then why not spend a little extra on your home entertainment? We mentioned this same thing happened during the Great Depression – only it became the Golden Age of Cinema and produced one of the first true movie stars, Charlie Chaplin. So, the good news – home networking may end up being one of the few industries to "grow" this year!!