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Avail Media and Motorola Partner for IPTV
17 Mar, 2008
Avail Media and Motorola announced a partnership to integrate Avail’s content transport solution and Motorola’s MWAVE IPTV portfolio. MWAVE provides set-tops, encoders, systems integration services, and program management for video hub office components, including third-party middleware and digital rights management. MWAVE will integrate with Avail’s Avail Connect to create a “hosted” head-end solution. Servicoe providers can also utilize these services to build their own head end.
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googleComcast, Motorola Team to Help Rural Cable Compete
19 Feb, 2008
Comcast Media Center and Motorola are teaming up to offer smaller cable systems a consolidated digital platform which allows for the deployment of advanced services including HDTV, DVR, VOD, and tru2way applications. The new platform will allow smaller cable operators with as little as a “330 MHz system [to] expand its service offering to customers by converting some of its analog channels to digital, utilizing programming on the HITS platform, and then using that reclaimed bandwidth to offer hundreds of additional linear HDTV and SD channels and a library of VOD programming with over 2,000 titles also available through the HITS platform.” It’s somewhat analogous to what Avail Media and IP Prime provide small telcos for IPTV.
This development could have implications on the competitive landscape. Smaller and rural cable companies have had a more difficult time upgrading their older plant to provide competitive triple play offerings than their larger MSO brethren. Small telcos have seized on that, and are launching IPTV powered triple play platforms to win over customers wanting a more robust video experience. In theory, this new Comcast/Motorola platform will allow smaller cable companies, who normally couldn’t afford to upgrade their plant, to now get in the two way digital, triple play game. If it gains traction, and quickly, the competitive landscape in smaller markets across the U.S. may begin to look very different.
Clearwire Launches Nationwide Portable Wireless Broadband
18 Oct, 2007
Clearwire announced the launch of a pre-WiMAX broadband PC card that can be used for portable broadband access within Clearwire footprints. Clearwire will use Motorola's pre-WiMAX OFDM technology for the service, which provides up to 1.5 Mbps broadband speeds. Pricing for the portable broadband service start at $59.99 a month with a PC card lease fee of $6.99 a month.
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Telecompetitor is a leading industry blog covering the telecom competitive landscape. We provide insight, analysis, and commentary on the issues and implications of the evolving telecom competitive landscape.
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NTCA Fall Conference
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Featured Article
Time to Prepare for DOCSIS 3.0 is Now
07 Aug, 2008
Second quarter results for broadband growth were a tad underwhelming. There are any number of factors which probably contributed to this slowdown, with the economic slowdown and housing crisis certainly towards the top of the list. But growth is also slowing because broadband penetration has grown considerably over the past few years, now ranging somewhere between 50% to 60% (depending on who you ask), and is beginning to slow down. There certainly is more room for growth, but at some point in the near future, broadband penetration will slow even more as it approaches saturation. It’s anyone’s guess what saturation is, but I would bet somewhere around 75% penetration of households (as a national average - individual markets will vary widely). From a service provider’s point of view, that suggests that posting continuing net adds of broadband customers will increasingly involve convincing a competitor's broadband customer base to switch service.