The Online Reporter

Digital Media & Broadband Industry News, Research and Insight

In this week’s edition of The Online Reporter …

 - Headlines and Content for The Online Reporter 830
BT Intends to Be UK Broadband King
Ustream Aims to Reinvent Broadcasting with Live Streaming
NAB: Local TV Essential for Emergencies & Number 1 Source for Entertainment
Sony Confronted by Hedge Fund Billionaire
ARRIS Moves Quickly to ‘Synergize’ with Motorola Home
DirecTV to Test Built-in Antennae to Eliminate Retransmission Fees
LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS
Sandvine: Video Has Taken Over the Internet
4K TV Sets See Bump in Shipments
Mobile Content Revenue Could Reach $65b by 2016
MoCA Dominates
Netflix is The Appto Watch on Tablets
Hulu Could Get 6m Subs by Year End

BROADBAND AND HOME NETWORKING
BROADBAND BEAT
New Lantiq Chip Provides up to150 Mbps Vectoring & 200 Mbps Bonding
Broadband & Pay TV Both Up at CenturyLink
Nordic Countries Take the Lead in All-Fiber Networks
Vodafone Enters Broadband Tryst with DT

ENABLING TECHNOLOGY
Intel Launches New Atoms
 
HOME NETWORKING
D-Link Makes Frontal Assault on 11ac Router Market

PRODUCT WATCH
Harman Kardon Launches High-end, AirPlay Compatible Receivers

WIRELESS BROADBAND
5G Pops up Its Head
OTT SERVICES, APPS AND SCREENS
OTT
YouTube to the World: The Experiment in Online Video Is Over
Rogers Looks at Taking on Netflix Mano-a-Mano
Dish’s Ergen: The TV Models of Today Are Changing
This Is the Year of Live Streaming
Redbox Instant Now on LG Smart TVs
YouTube Gives Live Streaming to Channels with 1,000+ Subs
Aereo Looks More & More like a Pay TV Service
Amazon Adds NBC Content for Prime Viewers
TiVo Revs up Recommendation Engine

TV EVERYWHERE
ABC Looks to Track Mobile Views with Nielsen and New App
Turner Broadcasting Jumps on Linear Streaming Bandwagon

MUSIC STREAMING SERVICES
Google Beats Apple to Market in Streaming Music Service

SMART TVS AND OTHER OTT DEVICES
LG to Update Google TV Gear

DIGI GRAMS
Netflix Wants to Become HBO Before HBO Becomes Netflix
‘The Great Gatsby’ is in 3D for No Discernible Reason
BT Adding 20,000 Hotspots a Week
Dell Cuts RT Tablet Price by 33%
Vimeo’s VoD Platform Gets Theatrical Release Movie
Belkin Shipping Mobile TV Adapter for iPod
AT&T CEO: ESPN Sports App Coming
Morgan Stanley: YouTube will do $20b by 2020

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Ustream Aims to Reinvent Broadcasting with Live Streaming

-Drives Engagement with Social Feeds and Longer Viewing Sessions

Ustream says live streaming is poised to revolutionize media and entertainment delivery. Live streaming is quickly becoming a hallmark of the entertainment ecosystem and a bolstering sign of our times. From the 2012 summer Olympics and the 2013 Super Bowl to the Red Bull Stratosphere Jump, the Mars Rover landing, the 2012 presidential debates – even Sony’s PS4 launch event – were all streamed live online.

Ustream’s platform was responsible for some of those events. It calls itself the leading live video broadcasting platform in the world. At NAB, Ustream founder Brad Hunstable touted 81 million users per month, and 15 million broadcasters – ie customers using the platform – around the world.

Ustream held a panel session at NAB earlier this year entitled “Reinventing 24/7 Broadcast Media with Live Streaming Solutions,” where Ustream’s latest platform was demo’d.

Content owners and broadcasters already know that streaming is great for big sports events, concerts, award ceremonies and news, particularly if there is a breaking news story. Ustream says opportunities go beyond these types of events, and are virtually unlimited in terms of ways to use live streaming online to engage with viewers, cultivate fandom, encourage linear tune-ins, monetize with advertisements, and learn about audience interests.

“We think that’s a huge opportunity for everyone, but especially media companies to expand their brands, to tap into the power of social events,” Ustream’s SVP of marketing David Thompson told The Online Reporter.

 

Ustream

 

Broadcasters Benefit from Playlist Live Streaming

Thompson said that broadcasters, content owners and TV operators stand to gain a lot from incorporating online live streaming into an entertainment brand or offering.

“They are complementary,” he said. “The Internet is widely interactive and wildly social, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t rethink your content strategy and the ability of your show to entwine itself with the viewers through that interactivity.”

Ustream’s core business is live streaming live events, such as concerts and press events. At NAB, Ustream launched a linear streaming feature for its platform, called a “playlist,” which enables users to Web-air an event on a loop, essentially having the video play on repeat online for viewers to come to the site and watch. Ustream’s playlist feature preserves that live experience in a time-shifted event.

This is an unusual model – instead of live streaming the event and then offering the video playback as VoD, Ustream’s Playlist feature plays the event over and over, allowing all viewers that visit the site to share in the same viewing experience. Alongside the live stream is a live social media feed, giving viewers a window into the virtual community of viewers that are all watching the same live stream.

We asked Thompson why do loops instead of VoD? “Everyone is watching [VoD] out of sync,” he said. “It isn’t having a shared experience.”

Thompson said there are characteristics of a live event that resonate with viewers. “A live event is usually perceived as more important, as opposed to disposable,” he said.

 

Live Streaming Gets Longer Views

Thompson said the viewing experience is actually enhanced when the viewers know that there are thousands – potentially millions – watching the exact same video feed.

“They [the viewers] are all watching it at the same time, and they’re having an opportunity to be a community together, sharing that experience and socializing that experience through social streams,” he said, “What we’ve found, over and over again is that’s an incredibly valuable enhancement to the video content.”

At NAB, Ustream founder Brad Hunstable cited some impressive numbers: He said people watch live video 18 times longer than on-demand, “The average view time on our platform per video is 45 minutes,” Hunstable said. He also said that when watching live content looped, instead of on-demand, viewers watch 4 times longer.

Aside from those impressive stats, Ooyala’s latest “Globe Video Index” found viewers watch live video 2.5 times longer than VoD content when watching on broadcast networks.

Thompson likened it to going to the movies with friends, rather than watching a DVD at home alone. “When you go to the movies and have that shared experience, it’s perceived as more important, and because of that, you commit,” he said. “That leads to higher engagement time as opposed to just ‘watch and forget.’”

 

Applications Beyond TV Everywhere

Thompson said the opportunity to incorporate live streaming into an entertainment offering goes far beyond what we would call “live linear streaming” – meaning a live stream of the broadcast linear programming currently airing on the TV.

Broadcasters are showing more and more interest in live streaming linear programming to connected devices. Despite what the broadcasters may have us believe, Thompson said this TV Everywhere-type application is basic, simple stuff.

“There should be no reason why what you’re watching over your cable box or television couldn’t also be available in the same format at the same time over your Internet connection,” he said. “We see a lot of that, we do a lot of that on our platform

Thompson said there are more ….

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Morgan Stanley: YouTube will do $20b by 2020

Morgan Stanley is predicting YouTube will earn $20 billion in gross revenue and $5 million in operating income by 2020. Morgan Stanley estimates YouTube will rake in $4 billion gross revenue and over $700 million in operating income in 2013.

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ARRIS Moves Quickly to ‘Synergize’ with Motorola Home

- Developing Next Generation Products & Getting the 2 Sales Forces in Sync

- Looking Ahead, Not in the Rear View Mirror

In the follow up to ARRIS’s $2.35 acquisition of the home division of Motorola Mobility, ARRIS has started creating synergy between the two companies and cutting expenses. The company borrowed $2 billion to finance the deal so the heat has been turned on high to make the combined companies profitable. Cost cutting, including layoffs, is almost always inevitable when two mature and similar companies come together.

ARRIS chairman and CEO Bob Stanzione told analysts at the Jefferies Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York last week that the company is “attacking operating expenses” and expects to cut $100 million to $200 million this year.

For starters, ARRIS says it has eliminated most of the overlap between the ARRIS and Motorola Mobility in their sales and marketing teams that focus on cable TV companies, a process that Stanzione said is 90% complete. He said it leaves no confusion about who the main sales rep is for each account.

Stanzione did not talk about how many or even if any employees had been terminated.

Next up is the research and development operation, which undoubtedly has a) duplicate projects and b) projects that are no longer needed. Stanzione said that would take longer than sorting out the sales and marketing teams because there are contract obligations with customers.

The third area of cost savings that he mentioned is the company’s suppliers and contract manufacturers where ARRIS now has more leverage to get lower costs.

Looking forward at future products, Stanzione talked about the cablecos’ move from QAM to IP technology, a hybrid QAM/IP set-top that will sell well for several years until the arrival of the all-IP home and powerful gateways. He attributed the opportunity the company has to consumer demand for higher resolution, mentioning 4K as an example, which means higher speeds are needed to and within the home.

Motorola Mobility’s home division, then owned by Google, recently reported lower revenue than ARRIS had expected. Stanzione said there were many reasons for that but specifically pointed to distractions that started three years ago when Motorola split into two companies, and then continued when Google acquired Motorola Mobility and was then prolonged as Google looked for a way to sell or hive off the home division.

According to Light Reading, Stanzione said there was so much distraction in that company, peaking last year when Google placed Motorola Home up for sale. “There was just no way that [management] team wasn’t distracted by that drama.” He said that some customers may have delayed or not placed orders until the situation was ironed out. To alleviate their concern, Stanzione said he has personally visited a number of major customers such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Verizon to reassure them.

Stanzione did not mention it but fear, uncertainty and doubt will inevitably continue until the current reorganization and terminations are completed. The sooner they are completed, the better!

Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt

The ravages of the fear, uncertainty and doubt that mergers, acquisitions and departmental closures inflict is also impacting …

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Harman Kardon Launches High-end, AirPlay Compatible Receivers

Harman Kardon, which makes high-end audio/video gear, has two new 7.1 channel receivers in the AVR 2700 and AVR 3700, both of which support Apple’s AirPlay with free apps. Their prices are $795 and $995, respectively. Other specs are 4K video scaling, a high current, ultra-wide bandwidth amplifier plus eight HDMI inputs, 3D compatibility and Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio format decoding and DLNA-certified 1.5 Ethernet connectivity. We want to point out that AirPlay has….

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New Lantiq Chip Provides up to150 Mbps VDSL2 Vectoring & 200 Mbps Bonding

– AnyWAN Offers Box Makers Any WAN

- The Coming Integration of LTE and DSL 

Lantiq this week announced that its new VRX300 family of vectoring chipsets for use in gateways will support download speeds of up to 150 mbps and, when used over bonded pairs of telephone wires, will provide download speeds up to 200 Mbps. A variety of chipsets is available for making various gateways that can accommodate any combination of available broadband including wireless: all flavors of xDSL and fiber plus LTE. Lantiq calls the multi-broadband capability its AnyWAN technology. Included in AnyWan technology is 802.11n Wi-Fi with beam forming. 

Dirk Wieberneit, Lantiq senior VP and general manager of the customer premises equipment business unit said the VRX300 chipsets are in field tests now and that it expects to begin shipping in quantity in June, which means finished products should be shipping to telcos and on to their subscribers in a few months. Frank Engel, Lantiq senior marketing manager for VDSL CPE, also participated in the presentation. 

The folks from the Broadband Forum told us last week that a year from now it will be amazing to see how many telcos will be underway in deploying vectoring. We expect that Alcatel-Lucent will make some major announcements within weeks. It is no doubt slowed by the slow pace the telcos take to make sure every “i” is dotted and “t” crossed before it signs off on an announcement. Telcos have regulators and subscribers to keep happy and so don’t want to over-promise or under-achieve. So far, Alcatel-Lucent is the only company we know of that is shipping vectoring DSLAMs for installation. It’s also shipping in quantity vectoring gateways/modems, probably made by Sagemcom.  

It’s not clear which maker of gateways will ship the first with the new Lantiq chips but the company says it already has orders from two of them. That invariably means the gateway makers have orders from telcos. 

Assuming those speed numbers hold up in the real world, which Lantiq says they do, the next question is why would a telco need to deploy all-fiber networks, at least until the peak speed demand for broadband exceeds 50 Mbps. Sure, DOCSIS and fiber can provide higher speed but a) who will need more than 50 Mbps in the near distant future? And b) why should a telco deploy all-fiber when that costs upwards of five to ten times as much as deploying vectoring over existing networks, even though some additional fiber has to be deployed? 

The LTE Impact on Wireline Broadband 

Lantiq also talked about a new hybrid technology called dsLte (as in DSL LTE) that it’s developing for use in sparsely settled areas where VDSL2 is not available, much less VDSL2 vectoring. It will use existing basic DSL wireline technology together with wireless LTE. Stationary DSL/LTE modems/gateways in the home will be Wi-Fi capable for connecting portable and fixed devices — tablets and TVs mostly.  

LTE is already available in speeds of up to the 100 Mbps range and that is going higher in the next year or two. LTE, like DOCSIS and unlike DSL, is a shared medium, which means that the advertised speed of 100 Mbps at each cell is diluted as each new subscriber gets online. Dave Burstein of DSLPrime says, “However, the sharing of DOCSIS and LTE works much better than common sense would suggest.”  

As we have been reporting since CES, we have seen increasing evidence that LTE is going to be a main part of AT&T and Verizon’s strategy for locations where vectoring is not economically feasible.  

The hybrid DSL/LTE chipsets that Lantiq is developing seem to be headed for Deutsche Telekom, which has already announced a deployment strategy that would require such a technology. It’ll be interesting to see whether other telcos follow suit. 

Questions and Answers about Hybrid DSL/LTE Networks

There is not a lot known publicly about the hybrid DSL/LTE broadband technology and how it will be implemented so we asked Lantiq some additional questions: 

The Online Reporter: Basic DSL has only very slow speeds, so why is DSL needed in an LTE fixed broadband scenario?  

Lantiq: DSL can provide bandwidth between 1 to 20 Mbps, on long loop length >1 kilometer (0.6 mile). When we combine, or better to say bundle VDSL with LTE, we can reach much higher bandwidths in those areas that are further away from the central office. DSLTE is a concept that allows DSL operators to extend the lifetime of their DSL network without big infrastructure investments by adding an LTE link and offering a combined/bundled pipe. 

Q: What would it be used for?  

A: To bring high bandwidth to rural areas and also to achieve the highest data rates in urban areas

It enables DSL operators to compete against cable TV operators, which are offering data rates “up to 100 Mbps.”

It also increases the reliability of the Internet connection, as the second link offers some redundancy.  

Q: Is the broadband connection constantly switching between LTE and DSL, looking for the fastest speeds? 

A: DSL and LTE will

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In this week’s edition of The Online Reporter …

 - Headlines for The Online Reporter 829

YouTube Challenges TV Networks for Eyeballs and Revenue

iPowow Enables a Whole New Kind of Interactive Second Screen App

Microsoft’s Bet on Windows 8 Looks Shaky

Sony Executives Lose up to 40% of Annual Bonuses

AlcaLu CEO: Current Situation Is Hardly Sustainable

Samsung Opening Stores Faster than Apple

Nokia Launches a $99 Smart Feature Phone

Liberty Global Cruising in Broadband but Stumbling in Pay TV

 

4K

Sony to Bring Its Big 4K Guns to PS4

 

LIES, DAMN LIES AND STATISTICS

Streaming Video Still Full of Low Bitrates and Buffering

84% of Broadband Households Have a Home Network

Enough Broadband Speed Will Be Available Through 2016

Tablets & Smartphones for Mother’s Day

US TV Households Increase, Counting Smart TVs

Broadband Boom for Swiss Cablecos

Report: Copper Wire Broadband Is Here to Stay

Over 50% of Adults Watch TV on Other Devices Every Week

Over 50% of Online Music Streaming Is to Mobile Devices

Consumers Love On-demand Video and Binge Viewing

 

 

BROADBAND AND HOME NETWORKING

BROADBAND BEAT

Broadband Forum: Vectoring Is Real and It’s Here to Stay

Swiss Telecom Does Another Joint Broadband Deployment Deal

Australia Rolls on in National Broadband Rollout

Liberty Global Goes for 500 Mbps in Netherlands & Switzerland

Triductor Achieves Vectoring Interoperability with CO Chips from Broadcom and Lantiq

TiVo Boosts Suddenlink’s Pay TV Numbers

Believe It or Not: Telefonica Adds Broadband Subs in Spain

Google Inspiring Fiber Rollouts

 

HOME NETWORKING

ZTE Taking the Powerline Versions of G.hn Chipsets from Sigma

STMicro to Embed Quantenna’s Wi-Fi Technology in Its SoSs

 

WIRELESS BROADBAND

Right the Ship

Portugal Telecom Ramps up LTE to 300 Mbps

AT&T Takes on T-Mobile & Verizon Wireless in Prepaid

 

 

OTT SERVICES, APPS AND SCREENS

 

OTT

There Are More OTT Services in the World than Shelly Palmer Thinks

Discovery Talks OTT and Online Video in Q1 Call

BT Shakes up the UK Sports TV Market

Kaleidescape Offers ‘Blu-ray Downloads’

 

TV EVERYWHERE

TV Everywhere Services Should Focus on Catch-up TV

 

DIGI GRAMS

IEEE Approves P1905 Spec

Bye-bye DSL, Hello Wireless

Roku CEO Says Virtual MSO Are Coming

Bill Gates: iPad Users Wish They Could Make Docs

Sky Puts More Moola into Roku

Maker Studios Hires Endemol Exec

NY Times to Make Web-only Documentaries

T-Mobile Launches TV App for iPhone

Winston the Carrier Pigeon Is Faster than ADSL

 

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There Are More OTT Services in the World than Fox TV’s Shelly Palmer Thinks

Last week Fox TV’s digital expert Shelly Palmer posted a woefully lackadaisical short list of the best streaming services. His list included Netflix, Hulu, Apple iTunes, Amazon, Aereo and Redbox Instant.

While those are popular and notable services – with the exception of Aereo, which is available only to a tiny market and whose selection Palmer made no doubt purely on the basis of shock value – the short list fails to get at the hope and opportunity of the OTT space. There are many newcomers to the OTT field and it’s still unknown how a crowded and heating-up market will affect the lumbering therapods of the content ecosystem, the pay TV providers (who are also, lest we forget, broadband providers).

There are slew of new kids on the OTT block, such as:

-Vudu: the UltraViolet-enabled buy and rent OTT service attached to retail giant Walmart. This service is truly for the movie buffs who want to transition their collections from DVD to digital.

-CinemaNow: Best Buy’s OTT service, also UltraViolet-enabled.

-Sony’s Crackle: Easily forgotten, still has great movies and TV shows to stream for free.

-Popcornflix and FrightPIX: Ad-supported OTT services owned by Screen Media Ventures. Popcornflix is known for its catalog of big name stars in lesser known roles. FrightPIX has a great selection of B-grade horror, and there’s a real appetite for that.

-Viewster: A global, free ad-supported OTT service based in Zurich. In the US, Viewster has cracked the top 50 online video properties.

-Warner Archive Instant: WAI can be best described as mainstream niche chic–a back catalog OTT offering with novelty appeal and a $10 price tag.

-Flixster: Once an app for finding details on movie debuts and reviews, Flixster is bridging the OTT service and a content aggregating site. It offers a library of UV-enabled movies for purchase or rental. The discovery component of the service also includes titles available through other OTT sites such as Vudu and Amazon Instant Video.

-M-Go: An up and coming entertainment guide that aggregates content searches across subscription and ad-supported services, and also has titles available for rental or purchase.

-HitBliss: Its unique business model lets viewers interact with advertising in order to earn credits that can be applied to purchasing or renting movies and TV shows to stream. HitBliss is still in private beta. HitBliss’ content isn’t niche, but the service certainly is unique in OTT.

-SnagFilms: A wonderful ad-supported OTT service that offers historical films and documentaries to stream. It has a library of around 3,000 titles and is available on a wide range of devices, including Xbox and Android and Apple tablets, a range of smart TVs and Roku and Boxee.

-YouTube: If you still think YouTube is just about dancing cats and skateboarding dogs,  ….

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Australia Rolls on in National Broadband Rollout

Faster broadband is getting big-time attention in every country.

Australia’s National Broadband Network (NBN) updated its national broadband rollout this week by adding more than 1.35 million residences. That brings its grand total to 4.95 million homes and businesses that will be able to sign up by June 2016. It also announced the names of the 190 or so new communities that are next in line to receive high-speed fiber optic broadband.

This brings to 4.85 million the number of premises that will have construction commenced or where services can be ordered by.

About one-third of residences that can get fiber now have signed up and NBN said those are downloading 50% more data than the average Australian broadband user.

NBN CEO Mike Quigley said, “We’re getting on with the job of rolling out the NBN in every state and territory. Our plan is to deliver better broadband to every Australian over the remaining 8 years of this 10-year build.”

He said that the price of NBN packages is competitive, and the company has “made an ongoing commitment to reduce the wholesale cost of broadband in real terms.” Many have cut-the-cord on their traditional phone service and are using Internet-based telephony, which also does videophone calls.

The occasion of the announcement was

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Broadband Forum: VDSL2 Vectoring Is Real and It’s Here to Stay

- Immediate & Visible Change in Bitrate

- Next Question: How to Best Deploy

“VDSL2 vectoring technology is here and it is real,” according to Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum, and Lincoln Lavoie, senior engineer at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). Lavoie is involved in the Broadband Forum and is vice chair of the Metallic Transmission Technical Working Group.

They said you can immediately see the bitrates of copper wires going up and going down as vectoring is turned on and off. “It’s here to stay, too,” they said, because chipmakers have proven they can make successful vectoring chips and equipment vendors are shipping reliable vectoring gear.

The Broadband Forum’s first vectoring plugfest was for chipmakers. It was held in September 2012 with five participants: Realtek, Ikanos, Lantiq, Broadcom and Triductor. Later events followed up in December and February, adding more chipset participants. While Plugfests don’t directly certify the G.vector products, they provide an extremely valuable opportunity for companies to check their interoperability with other vendors. Testing is typically conducted with multiple vendors simultaneously to make sure their products are interoperable with other vendors. “It’s held for the vendors to see if they interpreted the standard correctly in the engineering work they did,” they said. Plugfest test results are vitally important because they are available to members of the Broadband Forum, which includes the telcos that will be buying the vectoring gear. Although they cannot attend the plugfests because of the non-disclosure agreement, you can hear the telcos’ engineers asking when approached by a vendor: “Have you participated in the G.vector plugfests? Who have you been able to interoperate with? Let me see your plugfest test results.”

Plugfest Schedule for Vectoring

Chips   September 2012

Chips   December 2012

Systems           February 26-March 1, 2013

Chips   April 2013

Systems           June 2013

Plugfests started with testing only two modems in the vector group, then eight and then more are added until they number in the hundreds. The goal is to be 100% sure that every model of modem works with every model of DSLAM. As the events progress in time, the test case complexity is also increased to keep pace with the development of the technology.

The next plugfest that the Broadband Forum conducted was with equipment makers and their systems gear. It was held in February 2013. Participating in the event were DSLAMs and modems from different equipment makers, the two hardware pieces needed to make a vectoring system possible, one in the central office or neighborhood cabinet and the other in the subscriber’s home. Lincoln said the vectoring industry has gone a long way toward interoperability. “You wouldn’t see that level of activity unless vectoring were real and cost effective,” he said.

Alcatel-Lucent, whose success in vectoring we have been following closely, has participated in the systems plugfest but not the plugfest for chips. Perhaps it does not have to because it is selling vectoring-capable gear, not chips.

Mersh said deployment of vectoring would be large and quite quick. Consumer demand, competition from the cablecos and prodding by government regulators are driving deployments.

Regulatory wise, the US situation is quite straightforward, he said, because there is only one incumbent telco and US telcos are not forced to share their infrastructure with third party “local loop unbundlers” (LLUs), as they are called in Europe. BT, for example, is forced to share its binders with LLUs that compete against BT for the same subscriber. In some European countries, he said, there are competing infrastructures.

As to modems, he said they have to be at least vectoring friendly or broadband performance will suffer. Users of vectoring friendly modems will not get increased speeds until they replace them with vectoring-compliant modems, but it may be possible for a legacy CPE to be upgraded to a vectoring friendly CPE with only a change of firmware.

Vectoring can get complicated, he said, when the incumbent telcos and competing LLUs share the same DSLAM and binder, he said. When multiple broadband service providers are operating the equipment, he said, they have to share responsibility for noise cancellation.

Asked whether government regulators who oversee telcos understand the capabilities of vectoring and how it can delay the deployment of all-fiber networks, they said some are very knowledgeable. It depends on how close they work with the telcos in their country. Overall the level of understanding is “pretty good,” they said.

Discussions were ongoing between regulators and the industry, both telcos and their vendors, they said. They pointed to the UK, Germany and Belgium as countries where the regulators have been active in vectoring decisions. The US’ FCC is very well aware of vectoring’s possibilities they said. However, the industry must do more to create understanding.

There is recognition that VDSL2 with bonding and vectoring can deliver speeds and broadband services such as IPTV in a very cost effective way, they said. One result is that all-fiber can be deployed only where it is cost effective to do so, such as new residential areas, which the industry calls greenfields, where there is no existing copper wires.

We asked the perennial question, whose answer seems to change each year: how much broadband do consumers need? We were told that it has to be …

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