HomePNA Blog

AT&T has a good Uverse Quarter. TELUS offers Microsoft Mediaroom

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

Last Friday Fierce IPTV observed that AT&T had a good quarter Uverse-wise - 248,000 net adds for 2.1 million total subscribers - although they also noted at the same time that Verizon saw its lowest quarterly additions in years for FiOS. Living here in Comcast land you see a lot of Comcast commercials claiming they are cheaper than FIOS. Maybe it’s true. Fierce commented today that a Strategy Analytics study found that around 68% of U.S. pay TV subscribers are willing to switch providers in exchange for a 20% lower price. However, … “the study also notes that a not-modest 33% of telco TV/IPTV subscribers would switch away or back again--despite a 95% overall satisfaction rating among telco TV customers.  Wow.

So the telcos have their work cut out; not just winning new subscribers but keeping them. Speaking of which, TELUS, a leading national Telco in Canada, announced availability of new TELUS TV service, powered by Microsoft Mediaroom, in Western Canada. If you are new to Mediaroom, which has been proven in millions of installations, it's IPTV middleware that features fast channel change, whole home PVR, follow-me TV, and other goodies designed to give IPTV that edge in customer satisfaction. Like AT&T's Uverse, TELUS uses HomePNA for the in-home distribution of the IPTV streams to set-top boxes enabling TELUS to connect up to six TVs in a home, with multiple HD streams.

Well maybe one day I’ll be lucky enough to get TelcoTV – not today but someday - someday being the day that Verizon finds my house in their system. I keep telling them to ask the Verizon Wireless guys. They know where my house is; they’ve been sending me a bill for wireless service for years. I know they found me once because the NID is still attached to the back of the house.  Maybe someday ....

Global IPTV Growth Reported and U-verse adds features

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

Check out the latest press release on the Broadband Forum’s website announcing the results of a new market study. Predictably the report, which was prepared for the Forum by Point Topic, shows great growth in broadband worldwide in the midst of a severe economic downturn. What thrilled (but didn’t surprise) us was the even greater growth of IPTV with North America number two behind Western Europe in total IPTV deployments but growing twice as fast – is it that compelling IPTV value proposition?

And don’t forget, IPTV is young and the technology is evolving daily. Industry groups like the Broadband Forum continue to develop and refine guidelines which leverage home networking technology to allow service providers to offer IPTV. We like the Broadband Forum and their standards. Any technology that simplifies, standardizes, or enhances a service provider’s ability to provide broadband and IPTV services is good for our members.

In related news (note the smooth segue), our favorite son AT&T announced enhancements to its U-verse services. Chief among those is a new DVR feature “the company believes is unique: the ability to schedule and manage recordings from any U-verse receiver in a multi-room DVR installation (instead of from the DVR receiver room only)”. The new feature is a software upgrade that will be enabled while you sleep. In the words of Jeff Weber, vice president of video services for AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, “with AT&T U-verse, you’re getting DVR capabilities you can’t find from any cable providers … we’re giving you an advanced entertainment experience, and this is still only the beginning.”

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.

Service Providers Driving Home Network Shipments

By Rich Nesin, General Manager and Resident Philosopher, HomePNA

Well, I admit it. I like good news. Especially the kind that supports trends we’ve been predicting and reporting (ever notice how similar brag is to blog?).

A new report from market analyst Joyce Putcher at In-Stat entitled “2Wire, Huawei, and Thomson Make Major Gains across Broadband CPE Market Share Segments” provides more evidence that the basic dynamics of the home networking equipment market is changing.  Or is the correct term “maturing”?

Is it competition from TelcoTV service providers? Is it telecom evolving into a three network (hint to the Adult ADD crowd, the home network is the third) network? Is it home networks enabling service providers to add new customers and increase ARPU (a smutty sounding acronym for Average Revenue Per Customer) with new features like whole-home DVRs and remote diagnostics or new services like home technical support? Are other parts of the home networking equipment market saturating? Is it because music downloads and other popular “traditional” applications run pretty well on older Wi-Fi home networks?

In the words of a friend from one of the headline companies “Thanks! Now we just have to keep it up, but it just goes to show that the Telcos will win the home networking war in the long run”. And need we mention; they will need to have a fast and robust home network like HomePNA in the boxes.

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 …

“Social-Media-Ize”

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

Now we could be going out on a limb with this one … but the growth of IPTV and the rapid explosion of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In) has us wondering how it will all tie together? And it mostly certainly will. You can’t have to two popular and somehow connected media that don’t converge together. So, we’re going to be futurists here and suggest that in the next five to 10 years as IPTV proliferates and social media continues to explode, a merge of the two can’t be far behind. We’ve already mentioned our expectation that digital broadcast television and the Internet will somehow find themselves coupled like a yin-yang marriage where the opposites have learned to not only coexist but do so with an energetic harmony that somehow makes sense. Now toss in the obsession that has become social media and you have the makings for a new generation of ultra social couch spuds ready to launch into cyberspace and meet all of the people they may have only said “hi” to once in an elevator. We are curiously on the verge of something truly interesting that will impact society and culture in some unexpected ways. And HomePNA intends to be right in the middle of it as the potato soup du jour providing the necessary standard to distribute all of this wonderful home entertainment to every room in the house. So, here’s to your “social” spud lives!

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.

 

 

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!!