Posted by Aurora

Two years ago the cable industry promised tru2way was “the way” cable viewership was moving, but where did it go?

To really understand the evolution and future of tru2way we should take a step back and look at its predecessor the CableCARD.

The CableCARD goes back almost ten years, when TV manufacturers and cable TV service providers teamed up briefly for a ‘ditch the box’ effort – that is, eliminate that clunky old set-top cable box and instead build its functionality into new TV sets.

The belief then was that consumers hated having a separate set-top box, and that CableCARD functionality would make cable-ready TVs truly ‘plug and play,’ not to mention get rid of all that clutter of wiring. Some worked beautifully, while others stubbornly refused to recognize valid channel packages even when all conditional access was disabled. The pairing issues, and reluctance of manufacturers to support more than a handful of CC-compatible models, resulted in a very slow rate of adoption.

But CableLabs and MSOs hadn’t given up yet. Their ‘next big thing’ would be a bi-directional version of CableCARD, allowing a greater degree of interactivity and the ability to get video-on-demand – something the original CableCARD platform couldn’t do. To differentiate this new feature, they called it ‘tru2way.’

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Posted by Michael

The Android operating system (OS) from Google continues to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market, topping Apple’s iPhone and challenging RIM’s dominance in the smartphone OS market, according to the latest figures.

Research from the NPD Group found that Android moved past the Apple iPhone to take the No. 2 position among all smartphone operating systems in the first quarter.  Based on unit sales to consumers, the Android operating system moved into second position, with a 28 percent share of the market, behind RIM’s OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple’s OS (21 percent), stated the research company’s data.

Also, NPD Group found that first quarter smartphone sales at AT&T comprised nearly a third of the entire smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).

The NPD research and Android’s continuing momentum compelled CNN and Mashable’s Pete Cashmore to ask if the iPhone has “lost its cool.” I’m not sure that’s a fair assessment, but Cashmore’s column does provide some good insight into the rise of Android and the slow fall of Apple’s smartphone  product.

Posted by Bill

Amid all the hubbub at this week’s Cable Show 2010 regarding 3D TV, the future of broadband regulation and the rise of over-the-top content, it’s good to see some cable aficionados catching on to a smaller, potentially unsung development in the industry: The recycling of old brand names.

Responding to Light Reading Cable’s report covering the unveiling of the “SelecTV” brand cable will use to promote interactive TV services – supplanting the useful but unwieldy tech descriptor, Enhanced Binary TV Interchange Format (EBIF) – one sharp-eyed commenter noted that the TV business has used the name before, more than 30 years ago, for a pioneering if short-lived pay TV service specializing in movies.  A quick Google search also would show that SelecTV currently is the brand of a digital satellite pay TV service in Australia, but it’s probably best not to bring that up at the Cable Show.

Anyway, cable’s recycling of SelecTV immediately generated questions about other brands that might get resurrected for next-generation programming services or equipment. LR’s Jeff Baumgartner immediately called for the return of Admiral television sets and noted that gear-maker Thomson earlier this year changed its corporate name to that of its venerable Technicolor subsidiary. I, however, am about to begin pestering Motorola to bring back Quasar. OK, so the company no longer makes TV sets…but a guy can dream.

Posted by Michael

As the cable industry gathers in Los Angeles for the annual Cable Show, some clouds of uncertainty about the regulatory future of cable broadband services may greet attendees.

Six days before the event’s start, the Federal Communications Commission released its “third way” approach for broadband, suggesting Internet access should be regulated in the same manner as phone service. The FCC approach also proposes broadband service providers treat all Web traffic equally and not block or hinder consumer access to any Web content.

Cable interests inside D.C. expressed unease with the FCC’s proposition. Kyle McSlarrow, president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, organizers of the annual Cable Show, said the proposal to “reclassify broadband services is disappointing.”  He added that the association “firmly believes that the case for new regulation of the Internet has not been made.”

The FCC’s push has supporters, however. The Open Internet Coalition, which includes online heavyweights Amazon.com, Google and Ebay, stated in a letter sent to the FCC that the regulatory approach will “preserve a level playing field for all participants.”

While some in the cable industry may view the prospects of new broadband regulation as dismal news, others think it may not be so bad for the industry.  Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus said the regulatory impact on cable “is less apocalyptic than some have warned.”

Also, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will have an opportunity to explain his position when he addresses the Cable Show on Thursday, May 13.

Posted by Bill

Who needs an app store? Apparently not everyone, if Microsoft has the right idea with its new Kin mobile phones.

The two available Kin models, launched April 12 and available initially only through Verizon Wireless, are aimed at tweens and twenty-somethings – Microsoft reportedly designed the phones based on feedback from more than 50,000 consumers in the target demographic. Kin comes loaded with social media- and entertainment-oriented applications such as the Zune music player and Kin Loop, which the company says “automatically brings together feeds from leading Microsoft and third-party services such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter all in one place.”

What Kin doesn’t have is its own online store where users can download new games, utilities or other apps. That’s in contrast to the Android and iPhone mobile phones powered respectively by Google and Apple platforms that tout online apps stores boasting thousands – or in the case of the iPhone app store more than 185,000 — of free and priced applications that by most accounts are a big part of those phones’ appeal.

While some reviewers had a few good things to say about the new Kins, the launch also sparked a fair amount of questions about the closed app design. “What In God’s Name Is Microsoft Thinking With These New Phones?” blared the headline on Silicon Alley Insider’s write-up. Om Malik at gigaOm believes Microsoft missed the boat by diverging from “what has become standard user behavior among young people: trying and buying applications.”

If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be Microsoft’s first stumble in the mobile phone world.

Posted by Bill

A federal appeals court panel’s April 6 ruling that the FCC had overstepped its authority in trying to enforce net neutrality restrictions on Comcast brings to mind Winston Churchill’s famous quote that the 1942 victory of British forces over Germany’s Afrika Korps was “…not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Yes, the ruling leaves Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and other service providers free – for now – to decide which data traffic gets priority on its networks, possibly slowing some traffic from operators of video servers like Hulu or YouTube whose bandwidth-chomping applications might hinder network performance for other users. But the war over net neutrality isn’t over.

Before the dust settled over the ruling there already was talk that the court’s decision could give Congress the impetus to pass legislation explicitly allowing FCC regulation of net neutrality. And Light Reading Cable’s Jeff Baumgartner, in a post perhaps presciently titled “Did Comcast Really Win?” pointed out Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett’s take that the court ruling could resurrect “a whole raft of regulatory obligations from the days of monopoly telecommunications regulation – including price regulation.”

Expect cable and other service providers to be lobbying furiously as Congress and the FCC move to provide some clarity on how the Internet regulatory scheme evolves from here.

Posted by Michael

Last week, news surfaced that Verizon will stop building its fiber-supported FiOS network in new markets.  The development is disappointing to some who wanted access to the robust fiber connections delivering video, voice and broadband.  But Verizon’s decision shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Rolling out fiber is an expensive endeavor. Estimates pegged construction of the FiOS network at $23 billion.  The effort made some on Wall Street cringe at the hefty CAPEX costs for the telco giant.

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Posted by Michael

The tumultuous year of 2009, considered by some the apex of the current “great recession,” may be a distant memory.  For broadband, however, decent subscriber gains during the 12-month period illustrate how the must-have high-speed Internet technology can survive even during the toughest times.

Last month, Leichtman Research Group released data that found the nation’s 19 largest cable and phone providers, representing about 93 percent of the broadband market, acquired nearly 4.1 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in 2009.  The top broadband providers accounted for nearly 71.8 million subscribers at the close of 2009, with cable companies serving 39.3 million customers and phone companies supplying broadband to 32.5 million subscribers.

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Posted by Bill

Last week’s CTIA Wireless 2010 show provided solid evidence that mobile operators believe there’s a market for one type of device to help improve crappy in-building mobile network coverage.

That device is the femtocell, a mini-cellular base station that plugs into your existing home or office broadband connection. It not only provides a signal that improves in-building wireless coverage, but also boosts available wireless network data capacity and speeds by – this is the important part – offloading smartphone data traffic to that landline broadband connection instead of to the mobile network.

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Posted by Bill

It seems not that long ago, the annual International CTIA Wireless show was the pinnacle for wireless news. For some reason, it doesn’t feel that way now. Seriously, you know when one of the big announcements is expected to be Sprint’s launch of its “Supersonic” 4G/WiMax phone, the breaking news from CTIA could be more incremental than monumental.

Now don’t get me wrong. CTIA still is a must-attend event for anyone working with just about any element of the mobile ecosystem, from base stations to backhaul. Wireless Week says attendance at this year’s show in Las Vegas could be up a whopping 26 percent from 2009, a potentially huge rebound. The big service providers will be announcing handset deals and the big vendors no doubt will be revealing customer wins of their own while swapping competitive bon mots about 3G coverage and LTE rollout plans.

Much of the crowd also will be buzzing about the wireless elements of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan and spending time at the concurrent Tower Technology Summit, where even a couple of cable TV industry players will be talking about solutions for mobile’s backhaul capacity crunch.

But these days, most of the big news about wireless tends to be spread out over the course of the year at a variety of events (CES, Mobile World Congress, 4G World, even CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment) or controlled by a different entity, such as Apple with its iPad – which likely will be talked about at CTIA but doesn’t hit the market until two weeks after the show.

Maybe that’s a good thing; a sign that times are good enough in the mobile business and all of its elements that members can afford to keep wireless buzz-worthy at a number of venues, instead of putting their critical publicity mass behind CTIA ever year.