Searching Weekly Analysis
Searching Weekly Analysis
The story of cable WiFi is, so far, one of fascinating potential rather than actual achievement. In the US, the major cablecos are investing heavily in WiFi hotspots and homespots, laying the foundations for disruptive services which are yet to materialize. Cablevision’s WiFi-only FreeWheel, and even WiFi-first offerings like Republic Wireless, have tiny market share. The real potential lies in WiFi-centric multiplay bundles, but these have not been developed in many markets. However, between them, Google and Comcast look poised to accelerate their efforts, and the US MNOs should look across the Atlantic to the example of France’s Iliad, and arm themselves for a battle. The potential of cable WiFi is far-reaching. It would allow cable and broadband operators to…
The European TV standards-setting body the DVB Project has brought TV broadcasters a step closer to receiving a UHDTV technical specification, to potentially become available during 2017. Requirements for a ‘UHD-1 Phase 2’ delivery format were approved this week, at a meeting of the DVB Steering Board in Geneva. This is all about phasing in UHD in three or four or five steps. The first being 4K including 60 frames per second, the next likely to be High Dynamic Range (HDR) and then a wider color gamut (WCG). DVB has said that HDR is likely to be one of the first features included in the newly approved UHD-1 Phase 2. Following the board’s approval, DVB expects it will take a…
The story of cable WiFi is, so far, one of fascinating potential rather than actual achievement. In the US, the major cablecos are investing heavily in WiFi hotspots and homespots, laying the foundations for disruptive services which are yet to materialize. Cablevision’s WiFi-only FreeWheel, and even WiFi-first offerings like Republic Wireless, have tiny market share. The real potential lies in WiFi-centric multiplay bundles, but these have not been developed in many markets. However, between them, Google and Comcast look poised to accelerate their efforts, and the US MNOs should look across the Atlantic to the example of France’s Iliad, and arm themselves for a battle. The potential of cable WiFi is far-reaching. It would allow cable and broadband operators to…
The Spanish competition regulator has delivered a major blow to the continued dominance of Telefonica there, and levelled the playing field with Vodafone and Orange. A public consultation has been initiated by the CNMC, suggesting that much of Telefonica’s fiber be opened up for wholesale re-use. This is the backlash that Telefonica should have seen coming – it has all the major sports rights, has been allowed to acquire the pay TV leader in the region and has a dominant market share in cellular, broadband and telephony. The CNMC is perhaps looking jealously at the way France has handled the unbundling of fiber so successfully, triggering widescale network improvement. In France the rules allows the first fiber operator to install…
Sky has announced most of the features of its Project Ethan, which is so much more than a set top box, and it will roll out in the UK early in 2016, and we suspect it will then make a subsequent appearance in Italy and Germany. Like an iceberg, much of the technology which drives this is hidden under the surface, but for Sky this takes it firmly into cloud delivery, from what had previously been a pure DTH satellite company. Sky seems to be fully prepared to see its entire usage pattern change, and the service, now being dubbed as Sky Q, will shore it up against rivals, especially Liberty Global’s Virgin Media TiVo based service in the UK…
M&A, Strategies, Alliances Qualcomm and Korea Telecom have announced a joint project to build LTE-based IoT gateways for use in ATMs. The LoRa Alliance has launched its LoRaWAN certification program, and that it now has over 130 members. Version 1.1 of the spec has now added roaming functionality and support for new unlicensed spectrum in Asia. The Thread Group has begun its product certification program, with Freescale claiming to provide its hardware and stack to over half of the first 30 applicants. Osram has also joined the board of directors. Tele2 and Hexaware have partnered on a 150,000 3-year M2M deal, which will connect asset finance and leasing monitoring devices. Wirepas and its Pino mesh networking protocol have joined the…
ARM has used its TechCon stage to announce a swathe of IoT silicon developments, centered around its mbed OS platform – which has grown to over 55 partners and 150,000 developers, since its launch in October 2014. The mbed Device Connector is a free service that ARM says businesses can use to connect and manage IoT devices. These end-points would be using ARMs mbed OS platform, which now includes new reference designs and a Technology Preview version, as part of the announcement. ARM says the combination will shorten hardware design time. ARM says that the two reference designs are intended to help businesses meet their connectivity, security and productivity requirements – and that the mbed reference designs will help cut…
The Thread Group has announced that certification for its 802.15.4-based low-power mesh network protocol has begun. The smart-home focused group has seen 30 devices put forward so far, and Freescale Semiconductor has told us that its stack and hardware are powering over half of them. Qualifying products will receive clearance to use the Thread logo, in an attempt to create a brand that consumers will recognize and adopt. Stacks from ARM, Freescale and Silicon Labs will be available at the end of the month, with Freescale, NXP and Silicon Labs all launching Thread-compatible chips for sale. At the alliance governance level, lighting company OSRAM has also come on board as a board member, joining ARM, Big Ass Fans, Freescale, Nest…
To keep up with the snowballing demands of the IoT, the various wireless personal area network (WPAN) standards are having to evolve rapidly. Established platforms like Bluetooth, and new challengers like Thread, need to remain relevant to consumer and service provider requirements, and also to outdo one another to secure the scale and reach that are any standard’s lifeblood. The Bluetooth SIG, which defines the specifications, is previewing upcoming features which will be included in its low power strand, Bluetooth LE (BLE) next year. These will increase the range, speed and meshing capabilities of the standard and make it more competitive against Thread and ZigBee, the other two main challengers for the smart home network (and beyond, in the case…
Google has now opened up its Brillo operating system and Weave application framework to the broader developer community, after rolling it out to early access partners. The goal of the initiative is to get Brillo out into the wild, and boost Android’s creeping penetration in the IoT. With its huge share of the smartphone market, Android is an obvious entry-point for Google to use into the physical things that comprise the IoT – as Google is already heavily involved at the cloud and internet level. Google has also positioned itself at the head of a smart home platform via its acquisition of Nest, with the potential to launch a smart-home-as-a-service offering – with Nest devices and third-party devices linked via…
To keep up with the snowballing demands of the internet of things (IoT), the various wireless personal area network (WPAN) standards are having to evolve rapidly. Established platforms like Bluetooth, and new challengers like Thread, need to remain relevant to consumer and service provider requirements, and also to outdo one another to secure the scale and reach that are any standard’s lifeblood. The Bluetooth SIG, which defines the specifications, is previewing upcoming features which will be included in its low power strand, Bluetooth LE (BLE) next year. These will increase the range, speed and meshing capabilities of the standard and make it more competitive against Thread and ZigBee, the other two main challengers for the smart home network (and beyond,…
T-Mobile USA has once again turned the tables on its US rivals, allowing 24 of the most popular over-the-top video services to travel across its network for free – without the customer having to pay a penny. The only caveat is that the maximum video speed is 480p, which is pretty much ideal for a phone. TMO said it may consider raising this later, as better compression technologies become available. The latest in its string of disruptive ‘Uncarrier’ moves is designed to grab yet more market share from AT&T and Verizon, which are thought to be planning similar offerings, but only for OTT video services they control, such as Verizon Go90. TMO is appropriately calling this ‘Binge On’. The Uncarrier…
Vodafone’s half-year results marked an “important turning point”, said CEO Vittorio Colao, with a return to organic growth in service revenue and pre-tax income. He took the opportunity of the call to discuss the results to dismiss the idea that Vodafone might break in two, hiving off its higher growth activities in emerging markets; and to launch another attack on BT’s proposed acquisition of the UK’s largest mobile operator, EE. In organic terms, service revenue in the first six months of 2015 rose by a modest but significant 1%, year-on-year, to £18.43bn, while EBITDA was up 1.9% to £5.8bn. “This is a return to organic EBITDA growth and margin stabilization after six halves of contraction,” said CFO Nick Read during…
In public at least, harmony reigns between the two rival camps which were looking to define an LTE-based standard for internet of things (IoT) networks. Despite continuing insider talk of technical differences and behind-the-scenes politics, officially all the major wireless network vendors, and a group of major operators, have come together to form the NB-IoT Forum. This will seek to accelerate the development and adoption of that platform, and in doing so, hope to starve the challengers in the low power wide area (LPWA) space of oxygen. This was a hard-won step towards unified platforms, and if it took so much diplomatic effort to achieve consensus on one strand of LTE Release 12/13, doing the same for the entire IoT,…
It is clear that virtualization will be a significant element of the 5G network picture but there is a serious risk of disconnect between standards work in these two key areas. Carrier network virtualization is increasingly focused on ETSI’s NFV (Network Function Virtualization) specifications, though there are many other relevant activities too, many in the open source arena. This technology is starting to impact on mobile operators’ plans at the 4G stage but is likely to be refined further for 5G platforms – but of course, work on the core air interfaces for 5G is only just beginning, despite the welter of ‘pre-5G’ demonstrations and launches. The latest initiative funded by the huge European Commission 5G PPP (Public-Private Partnership) scheme…
The semiconductor industry was once the engine of hi-tech innovation and Silicon Valley buzzed with start-ups and new ideas. But that era may have ended. Silicon Valley is less and less about silicon; the costs of developing new chips are huge and scare off most venture capitalists; the established companies are in a cycle of consolidation; even Moore’s Law may be close to running its course. Yet in the mobile world, the need for new ideas and fierce competition is as urgent as ever – just as the networks have to evolve to support a wide range of behaviors from hyperscale cloud services to the IoT, so the underlying processors, modems and sensors need to do so too. ARM’s CTO,…
Juniper must be feeling increasingly like the wallflower at the dance. As its rivals and partners pair up around it, it has failed to secure an Ericsson acquisition (reportedly discussed seriously in the wake of news of the Nokia/ALU deal). It has worked hard to partner with cellular network providers to create some crossover into mobile for its IP business – which has always been more oriented to carriers than Cisco’s, and is highly regarded in that sector. But its arrangements with Nokia and Ericsson look threatened now by those firms’ new marriages, and Juniper is reported to have been under pressure from activist investors to take itself private. It is certainly running out of potential mergers of its own,…
Ericsson has invested heavily in becoming an all-round IP player, not just lord of a mobile ghetto, but its efforts are dwarfed by Cisco and even Alcatel-Lucent. Meanwhile, Cisco has danced around Ericsson’s RAN territory in various ways but never scored much success. In a world of fixed/mobile convergence and all-IP, the logic of the two companies uniting is overwhelming. The news that the two giants were entering a deep strategic partnership focus nevertheless still came as something of a surprise, given that the recent history of the networks industry has centered so heavily around which firm would lead the IP market of the future – and by inference, whether the established 3GPP community would set the agenda, or the…
SFR has announced that it partnered with Swiss TV technology firm Nagra to launch a 4K Ultra HD service and set top in France. It will use Nagra’s anyCAST content security as well as its MediaLive multiscreen technology for delivering the content. The new service, called La Box Fiber Zive de SFR (Red Box SFR Fiber), will also be using Nagra’s VideoStore and ShareCast, for VoD catalogs and streaming respectively. Unsurprisingly, SFR is claiming the launch represents France’s most advanced Ultra HD offering, but frustratingly refuses to clarify in its documents whether this is simply a 4K or true UHD launch – although given that there are still no consumer-grade panels that can achieve the Rec. 2020 color gamut required…
The latest quarterly earnings should prove beyond any doubt that traditional linear TV is dead, and the pay TV business as we know it is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Pay TV companies, who are all also broadband companies (save for satcos) in the US, have collectively reported a better-than-expected Q3, but the trends already in motion won’t be reversed. All the major TV networks know this, and are now signaling openly their plans to aggressively pursue viewers directly through Internet-delivered subscription services. Meanwhile, the collective broadband subscriber base continues to grow. Broadband/pay TV providers in the States are busy testing out new types of skinny bundles and streaming bundles in order to grow their shrinking pay TV subscriber bases, and…