HomePNA Blog

U-Verse – Something to Brag About in this Economy!

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

 

The numbers just in (well, last week but we’re on top of it anyway). AT&T announces its U-verse fiber network passed nearly 18 million living units. Nearly 50 percent of AT&T U-verse TV subscribers takes one of the two largest video packages. More than 90 percent of U-verse TV customers bundle with high-speed Internet. More than 75 percent of U-verse TV customers have a triple- or quad-play. U-verse voice services are now available in 80 markets. Fantastic news in a time when the non-stop bad news pours out of Wall Street like an endless faucet. If you are considering joining HomePNA now is clearly the time. Come be a part of our ecosystem and enjoy the rewards of a rapidly growing IPTV marketplace that shows no sign of a slowdown.

ITU G.hn Momentum Update

By Rich Nesin, HomePNA general manager and resident philosopher

In case you were wondering, G.hn is continuing to astound standards watchers by making good progress.  Work at the April meeting, held the week before last, focused on two areas – resolving the remaining comments on the “foundation” document and new submissions on the G.hn MAC.

 If you are not an avid G.hn fan, the history is that the group delivered on its promise to agree on a foundation document by last December (in other words, the group agreed that the document was mature enough for designers to start designing).  The foundation document defines most of the PHY (the part of the standard closest to the coax, phone wire or powerline media that deals with esoteric stuff like encoding) and parts of the MAC which is the control part of the standard. 

 The consent in December triggered a standard ITU comment period which is where the remaining details are ironed out. Last meeting the group made good progress wrapping up the remaining comments on the foundation standard and also agreed on a lot of MAC submissions.  We think that prospects look good for consensus to start forming on the final standard during the next meeting which will be held May 10 through May15 in Geneva.

IPTV Grows Worldwide

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

Market analysts MRG released their Global IPTV Market Leaders Report — March 2009 that describes some interesting trends around the world. Among the most notable, the report cites global growth and most specifically in China where strong gains have been for Access, video on demand, set-top boxes, middleware and content protection. “This kind of a regional category-take-over is unprecedented,” states Jose Alvear, IPTV Analyst at MRG. “Larger regional vendors (and service providers) are starting to ‘pull out all the stops’ on their regional strategies, on the belief that the economic contraction is offering unique opportunities to move aggressively into un-served markets.” We’re not surprised by the report’s revelation – in fact, we expected to see worldwide growth particularly in the Asian countries and South America where our own business interests continue to build.

"Here take it All! But Please Don't Take my Cable Service"

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

In the obnoxious theme of "we told you so," our fellow Americans still seem to be doing exactly what we said they would be doing during the recession – going home for their entertainment. A survey from Amplitude Research said 70 percent of 600 respondents said they plan to keep current cable and satellite television service this year. On the flipside, only two of the 600 said they plan to drop their multichannel video service to cut household expenses; however, 15 percent said they intended to downgrade to a lower-priced video subscription service.

Also interesting, the study found that a "substantial number" said they are turning to the Web to watch video and about 32 percent said they "regularly watch video from Web sites such as Hulu, YouTube and iTunes."

We think we can safely say that with the vast majority continuing to keep their home entertainment service despite what's going on with their pocketbooks, the home entertainment industry will not be taking any real hits in 2009 and will grow at a steady, even pace. We also think the economic environment may be accelerating the move away from the traditional cable model and toward an on-demand model that relies more and more on over-the-top Web content delivered to your TV over IPTV and a home network.

Upgrade Eager Beaver or Smart Lodge Builder?

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

A very interesting point was recently made in a Fierce Telecom article title IPTV Report Belgacom Reviews its IPTV Platform. Belagom, an IPTV service provider based in Belgium, already looks toward replacement of its IPTV platform with a new middleware solution that will support richer capabilities. The article begs the question regarding the value of introducing a second-generation technology before the first generation has even been widely accepted. Good and interesting point; however, those users who don’t know the difference between IPTV and MTV will surely be attracted to a media that just keeps getting better and better. Other than an enormous capital investment in the upgrades we don’t see the downside. Although some would argue that in this economy it’s best to tighten belts and see where the storm breaks. We can’t argue with that point either. But companies NOT suffering the economic flu outbreak should focus on innovation and spend money to help stimulate the economy back into growth mode. Some might suggest that we’ve gotten where we are because too much anxiety has prematurely forced cutbacks. Just a thought …

Clouds Gathering Over Your Home

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

We always find it interesting when new terms get coined in the tech industry to add to the ever-growing Alphabit soup of acronyms and random phrases. We recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal about “cloud computing,” which could also be considered “grid computing” that really means the network is the computer. With the slow merge of the Internet with all things home entertainment, we’re willing to buy into the idea that clouds are gathering over your home network. As the home network comes together with the Internet to provide everything from basic computing needs to robust home entertainment and IPTV, the idea that the network drives everything in the home doesn’t seem like a stretch. Between HomePNA and wireless LAN you can attach to virtually any relevant device in the home without new wires. We’re willing to be that with the approval G.hn, the type of consumers’ in-home wiring will be of even less consequence to service providers that adopt the new standard.