HomePNA Blog

HomePNA Gets (even more) Real

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

It’s been a busy week. The first half was spent staffing the HomePNA demo in the Fiber To The Home (FTTH) conference. Good demo, great interest, and some interesting applications and products I’ll write about soon.

Thursday was the HomePNA Summit. We had over 100 attendees, half from service providers, and some really great sessions. I’m a marketing type so I don’t get insulted when you don’t believe every piece of earnest hyperbole that I pound into my keyboard, but nothing cuts through the hype like respected telcos and satellite TV providers such as CenturyLink, Bell Aliant, AT&T, TELUS, Telefonica, Tata Sky and yes talking about their own real life experiences with home networking technology – getting the install times down and customer satisfaction up. No really, don’t take my word for it. Read Carol Wilson’s article “HED: HomePNA driving down install times”  in Telephony Magazine. She quotes real numbers, real times and actionable advice.

And please read the HomePNA PR about the Summit. Service providers are joining HomePNA as we continue to gain momentum in triple play home networking. And not just in North America; it’s being adopted worldwide thanks to robust operation over both coax and phone wires.

And while you’re at it, don't miss Jim Barthold article in CED magazine “Beyond the Triple Play” that ran yesterday. Jim describes Bell Aliant’s experience establishing leading triple play services and their plans for the future. Good reading.

Home Network Management – an Activity Enabled by a Platform

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

Six or seven years ago who would have thought that service providers would not only consider home networks to be part of their network but would want to manage them? Well they sure do now. According to an article in Billing and OSS World magazine last week, the home network enables service providers to partake in a host of other applications that span from utilities to health care. And lest we forget that pesky need to reduce service costs and especially minimize the number of service calls. This isn’t exactly news but neither is the requirement for remote monitoring and management – essential to providing a stable home network for these applications.

So today, instead of evangelists (like me) spinning the story, we have technologists and product managers at leading service providers like Verizon (who use MOCA for home networking) and TELUS (who use HomePNA) describing their plans for the home network.

By coincidence, I was discussing the very same topic last week with a respected engineer at another equally well known leading telco that uses HomePNA for its’ triple play IPTV service. He told me that, from their operations center, he had diagnosed a home networking problem in his boss’s house down to a loose coax connector on one of the set-top boxes. Turns out the boss had previously detached the connector while he was working on his entertainment center. Connector tightened; problem solved. The fix was verified by a quick to the operations center and, most importantly, no service call was required.

Well one reason (as my friend the engineer will tell you) that this particular service provider choose HomePNA was the attention to integrated remote diagnostics and management capabilities (and we at HomePNA believe that HomePNA 3.1 has best in class capabilities). And one reason for this blog is to talk about how this stuff is real and a lot of it is integrated into the residential gateways, set-top boxes and other equipment being installed being in customers’ homes today.

Broadband Services – Is it the Turning Point

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

I recommend you check out “Broadband Services: The Turning Point”, a new (and free) whitepaper from Parks Associates. Like some of their other papers, this one is rich with direct customer data (of course the questions, analysis, and conclusions are Parks’). One interesting item that doesn’t surprise me is that bundles correlate to higher customer satisfaction. HomePNA is all about enabling bundled services and we see the interest from service providers every day.  It also states that a higher percentage of fiber broadband customers subscribe to bundles than cable or DSL customers – and that fiber broadband customers are the most satisfied. I guess you have to buy the complete paper to see why but we can guess.

The paper also holds that half of the US broadband households are not aware of the broadband speed they are receiving.  Not too surprising to a Speedtest  addict like me -- you measure a blazing 16 Mbps downstream rate and then see videos downloading at 300Kbps.

And I’m betting these trends will continue -- especially as service providers like AT&T start to leverage their bundles (AT&T announced last week that it is offering its first discounted wireless-U-Verse bundle ). And, as we’ve seen before, a highly satisfied customer is much more likely to stay than a satisfied customer; while a highly dissatisfied customer is much more likely to leave than a merely dissatisfied one.

As the market shakes out and service providers achieve the high quality “core services” and bundles they need to compete, Parks (and I) think the focus will move to the value add services. This is where they will really be able to differentiate – and by doing a lot more than allowing a few over-the –top applications.

HomePNA Announces First Technology Summit

August 4, 2009 – The HomePNA Alliance today announces its first Technology Summit to be held September 30 and October 1, 2009 in Houston Texas.  The Summit, which is also being promoted by the FTTH Council, will be co-located with the 2009 FTTH Conference & Expo. The Summit will focus on technical and business insights surrounding HomePNA technology and its role in enabling an advanced digital home experience for end users.

The Summit will feature speakers from among the world’s largest service providers, including AT&T, Telefonica, YES, TELUS, Tata Sky and Bell Aliant who will discuss HomePNA’s role in creating compelling and competitive home networking and IPTV product portfolios for their respective companies.  At the Technology Summit, Cisco, Motorola, CopperGate Communications and other leaders will also give their perspectives on the technology that so many service providers have adopted due to its fast performance and rich features desired by service providers.

Maximizing profits in the evolving IPTV marketplace

“Service providers of all types and sizes across the globe are focused on the great opportunities provided by triple play, digital entertainment and interactivity – all applications enabled by a robust home network,” said Bill Simmelink, HomePNA president.  “The most effective approach to providing a high-performance home network uses existing wires, and the

Summit will explore why the HomePNA standard provides the best path and opportunities for maximizing the benefits of this huge new opportunity.”

“Service providers learn best from other service providers. The HomePNA Summit will offer a truly global service provider perspective on this important and evolving trend,” said Bernie Arnason of Pivot Media, a co-producer of the event.

 

HomePNA technology is the highest-performing home network standard today, delivering a quality video experience for viewers while enabling service providers to reduce installation costs, utilize remote management and diagnostics to reduce operational expenses, and even reduce end-user costs through unified billing.  Over 10 million HomePNA chipsets have been shipped.  Each week, 30,000 homes add HomePNA-based networks worldwide - with over 40 service providers.

Nearly 10 million HomePNA Chipsets Shipped

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

I hope you didn't miss the recent article "HomePNA chipsets enable smart home entertainment networking” by Eran Gureshnik, product line manager of HomePNA products at our favorite-son home networking chip supplier CopperGate Communications.

The article discusses how HomePNA 3.1 has improved business opportunities for service providers and entertainment options for end users. “These days, the answer to “What’s new on TV?” is far more than a list of sitcoms, dramas, and reality shows. Interactive bidirectional TV is elevating the viewing experience with offerings like AT&T’s U-verse, an IPTV service featuring video on demand, Voice over IP (VoIP), Total Home DVR, and more. A recent report from ABI Research states that demand for IPTV service will increase by an estimated 32 percent annually over the next six years to nearly 79 million global subscribers by the end of 2014.[1]”. Further, “Today, four out of the five largest IPTV-deploying telcos in North America have selected HomePNA and are installing it at a rate of 120,000 homes per month. CopperGate Communications has shipped nearly 10 million HomePNA chipsets”.

It also discusses the technical challenges involved in delivering triple-play broadband services and the way HomePNA 3.1, an ITU standard and the first multi-wire home networking standard, has paved the way for significant progress in IPTV with chips that reliably stream data, voice, and video over existing coax and phone wires. Included are features such as Limited Automatic Repeat reQuest (LARQ), a technique first used by the HomePNA SIG in the HomePNA 2 standard to compensate for high impulse noise which is known to cause frequent frame damage.

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. 

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.