Now that the Broadcast Mobile Convergence Forum pretty much has no real job to carry out, given that European mobile broadcast video, especially DVB-H, is in the doldrums, it has decided that it will fold itself into the OIPF (Open IPTV Forum). The merged organizations will continue to engage in standardization of mass market services and devices.
In a dramatic reversal of the usual pattern, Huawei is suing Motorola and Nokia Siemens over intellectual property allegations. In a filing with the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the Chinese giant claims Motorola has illegally transferred Huawei IPR to NSN, which is in the final stages of acquiring the US firm’s network infrastructure business for $1.2 billion. Usually Chinese firms get allegations they have ‘borrowed’ patents from western firms. The complaint stems from Huawei and Motorola did business together in 2000 over GSM and 3G RAN and core equipment.
Not quite announced yet, there is a strong rumor that Sky Broadband is about to buy hotspot operator The Cloud, in the UK. This will push owner BSkyB up against the dominant BT Openzone hotspot business, although as of now they have roaming agreements between one another. Virgin Media has also outlined plans to build a network of WiFi hotspots across the UK this year and Vodafone has been testing its SureSignal femtocells as a possible public access solution, using cellular bandwidth. The Sunday Times newspaper says that Sky will announce the deal this week and then launch free Wi-Fi for its 2.8 million domestic broadband subscribers, through the Coud’s 22,000 UK hotspots.
US researcher In-Stat says that demand for smart phones will mean that 850 million devices will ship in 2015 and that half of US handsets shipments will be smartphones by as early as 2012. The researcher says such phones need
a powerful browser, a variety of apps, a simple UI and a good keyboard or touch screen.
UK broadband comparison site Broadband Genie says that BT led the way overall in 2010 in its home broadband charts, just holding off a strong challenge from Plusnet. Three Mobile led the way in mobile broadband, ahead of a strong showing from Vodafone. Last year’s home broadband success story, O2, was down in fifth place, behind Sky and Virgin Media respectively. Three Mobile continued its strong mobile broadband showing for the second year in a row.
Adobe Systems and thePlatform have announced a new alliance to deliver online and mobile content using secure delivery and management services for publishers. It will use Adobe Flash and they will integrate thePlatform’s mpx system using Adobe Flash Access software and HTTP Dynamic Streaming. The mpx console was built using Adobe Flash Builder software and includes an Adobe AIR client for file uploads.
It’s been a while since we thought seriously about hard disk drives, but with Tablets coming along, there is a chance that the 1.8 inch form factor will be worthwhile again and Toshiba’s Storage Device Division has brought out a design using low-insertion force in SATA connectors. It reckons this leads to a 10% smaller footprint compared to drives using microSATA connectors. Targeted at Tablets, consumer electronics devices and external HDDs, the MKxx39GSL family comes with between 160 GB to 220GB and is ahead of 2.5 inch drives, the company says, in terms of vibration robustness, power consumption and low noise. It goes to samples in February. Somehow we can’t see Tablets with 1.8 inch drives, they’d be too heavy and get too hot.
IP video specialist Auditude has just raised $11 million from investors including Granite Ventures, Greylock Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank. It’s a second round and the cash will be used to move Auditude into mobile video and find new distribution channels. Auditude manages billions of video impressions for companies like Comcast, Dailymotion, Fox News, Lionsgate, Major League Baseball, the UK’s Channel Five, Sony Music, Starz Media, Universal Music Group and Yahoo!
The UK Culture Minister has said that he intends to refer the purchase by News Corp of the rest of BSkyB which it doesn’t own (but has controlled for some time) to the Competition Commission. He received a reports from regulator Ofcom advising him to do this late in December. Sky execs have hit back with claims that Ofcom is biased against it. It’s a bit of a storm in a teacup, and we reckon that News Corp will get its way, after the Government comes up with some hoops which Sky will have to jump through, potentially relating to who controls Sky News editorial policy.
NDS says that Sky Deutschland will source CI Plus modules from NDS, based on its VideoGuard conditional access system. Not quite sure how it could have bought them from anyone else, but this means that Sky Deutschland can buy the actual set top hosts from anyone it wants.
With Verizon predicting that half its user base will have smartphones by the end of the year, up from 25% now, it is easy to forget how important the humble feature phone remains to carriers’ overall customer numbers. It does far less for data revenues than its big cousin, of course, but AT&T in particular has embraced the ‘dumb phone’ with its focus on midrange models running Qualcomm Brew and supporting messaging and browsing. Such moves are making it easier for many consumer categories to stick with featurephones, and according to a survey by Compete.com, 65% of US wireless users will make that choice when they come to place their current handset. About 10% will trade up to a quick messaging device with a browser; 35% will shift to a full smartphone.
Fierce IPTV says that Netflix’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, indicated that Netflix wants to get its hands on HBO content, speaking at the National Association of TV Programming Executives in Miami. HBO has said in the past that to afford its programming Netflix would have to charge subscribers $20 a month instead of $8. But Sarandos hinted that if it didn’t get that content, Netflix would go head to head to outbid HBO for content, and named Warner Brothers as one place it plans this, when HBO rights to Warner content runs out in 2014.
Ivi TV, the internet content provider that says that it is obeying must carry rules, just like cable, but carrying it over the internet. Now it has suffered a major set-back in a court battle with broadcasters, who want it to stop re-broadcasting their content. The court has refused a to offer Ivi a declaratory ruling which legitimizes its claims, meaning the cases from Broadcasters alleging copyright breach, can go ahead. Ivi charges subscribers $5 a month for service and pays fees to the US Copyright Office for content it re-broadcasts. Last year, FilmOn, which had a similar service was forced off the air following a suit from broadcasters.
Both MetroPCS and Verizon Communications have filed legal actions aimed at blocking the FCC’s recently announced net neutrality regulations, both filing this week in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. It is likely the cases will end up being heard together and others may join in by then. This is the same court which struck down the FCC’s decision to stop Comcast blocking subscribers from using a file-sharing service, saying that it had overstepped its authority. The same thing is almost certain to happen again and then it would be down to Congress to enact a law around Network Neutrality, something it has singularly failed to manage in the past.