AT&T will begin launching more live IPTV markets for its Project Lightspeed fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) services next week, reports Telephony Online. Though the carrier has so far only launched those services in two cities (San Antonio in June, followed by Houston), it is still striving to use the last three weeks of the year to meet its goal of launching Lightspeed in 15 markets in 2006.
“I think we’ve got a good shot at hitting the 15 market launches by the end of this year,” AT&T’s chief financial officer Rick Lindner said at an investor conference this morning. “But while that’s kind of a nice headline, the important thing is that we look ahead to 2007. Our expectation in 2007 is one where we’re going to move into a launch and a ramping stage of the product.”
U-verse’s new lineup now includes more than 300 channels, 25 of which are HD, as well as digital music, local channels and premium movie and sports programming. AT&T avoided expanding its service launches sooner so it could include high-definition television service and the necessary set-top boxes, said Lindner. “Those two components are now in place. Would we have liked it to have gone faster and be in the market faster? Yes. We’re not a company that’s tremendously patient with those things. We want to move forward.”
UTStarcom’s RollingStream (above) provides an end-to-end solution for telecommunications operators and broadband service providers to deliver broadcast quality IPTV. Their Broadband Media Distribution Protocol (BMDP), intelligently caches program segments on network edge servers based on viewing demand patterns and operator-specified policies.
Microsoft and the newly merged Alcatel-Lucent have partnered to deliver IPTV technology to Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), the companies said Thursday. SingTel’s IPTV trial will use Alcatel settops with Microsoft’s IPTV software, HP ProLiant servers, Harmonic’s MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video encoders, CLEARcut offline storage encoding solution, and NMX Digital Service Manager.
Hong Kong’s PCCW was the world’s first major IPTV service. Their Now TV reaches over 600,000 subscribers in the three years since its launch.
IPTV Providers are expected to grow significantly in the next few years due to inexpensive MPEG-4 settops and VDSL-2. Whereas MPEG-2 encoders might require up to 6 Mb/s for standard definition (SD) video and 12 Mb/s to 30 Mb/s for high-definition television (HDTV), MPEG-4 can squeeze SD video down to about 2.5 Mb/s and HDTV to perhaps 8 Mb/s.
AT&T’s primary MPEG-4 set-top vendor, Motorola is running Microsoft’s IPTV Edition software. Motorola said it began shipment last month. Scientific Atlanta (now owned by Cisco), is AT&T’s secondary MPEG-4 set-top supplier. AT&T has pledged to launch HDTV in Houston by month’s end and fiber to the node in a total of 15 markets by year’s end.
AT&T is using VDSL2 over twisted pair to deliver 20 Mb/s to 25 Mb/s to the home, while Verizon’s FiOS is bringing Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) and some of its cable competitors are conducting trials of DOCSIS 3.0 that promise similar speeds.
PVR’s and VOD may wrecking havoc with broadcast television revenue. If the networks continue to be paid only on the basis of live viewing, lost ad revenue could be as much as $600 million next year compared with an estimated $300 million in 2006.
| REGION SHIPMENTS | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. VOD households (in millions) |
11.7 | 16.0 | 19.7 | 22.6 | 27.3 |
| Annual growth rate | - | 37.6% | 22.7% | 15.0% | 20.5% |
| U.S. VOD revenues (in millions of U.S. dollars) |
$720.0 | $923.0 | $1,022.8 | $1,085.8 | $1,281.2 |
| Annual growth rate | - | 28.2% | 10.8% | 6.2% | 18.0% |
The $80 billion deal just needs FCC approval to close. It already has received the other necessary approval, from the Department of Justice, which imposed no conditions.
Last week, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin asked the panel’s third Republican to cast the tiebreaking vote on the deal. The commissioner, Robert McDowell, has recused himself because he worked as a lobbyist for a trade group opposing the deal. McDowell also cited ethical concerns of the Virginia Bar Association.
The attempt by Martin to break an ongoing deadlock over the multibillion-dollar merger between AT&T and BellSouth is encountering scrutiny from Democrats and advocacy groups.
By the time Martin pulled the plug on talks last week, Gene Kimmelman, public policy director of Consumers’ Union, says AT&T was offering a number of sweeteners, including an offer to sell “naked” DSL — stand-alone DSL with no strings attached or purchase of other services required — for $24.95 a month. That’s almost half the $45 price for stand-alone DSL currently.
An Associated Press report said Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye wrote FCC chairman Kevin Martin expressing “disappointment” in Martin’s “apparent willingness to waive government rules” to allow former lobbyist and current commissioner Robert McDowell to vote on the proposed merger of AT&T and BellSouth.
Democratic Congressmen John Dingell and Ed Markey sent a letter to the FCC’s general counsel asking 15 pointed questions about past precedent of such recusals and other issues, the Associated Press report said. As Josh Silver puts it in the Huffington Post
Rather than negotiate in good faith, Chairman Martin - led by the nose by AT&T - has resorted to unethical, strong-arm tactics, ordering FCC lawyers to determine if McDowell may vote. He would then force McDowell to violate his ethical standards and vote for the merger.
Is Martin a bull in a China shop - the John Bolton of telecom? The correct answer is yes.
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