News about People and Companies influencing The Broadband Home
Power Line Communications has always held the promise of providing a third broadband wire into consumer's homes. Although it has gained some traction in Europe, the US power grid structure makes deployment more difficult. A one-day Columbia University-sponsored update on the technology and deployment status in the U.S. revealed some strengths and progress. Our bottom line is that PLC access works, but big hurdles remain to make it a major business.
The past thirty years have seen mobile telephony move from the first public call to having more mobile subscribers in the world than wireline phone subscribers. During a conference panel we organized called "Wireless: The Road To Broadband Anywhere", four industry leaders discussed the evolution path for providing broadband not just to homes and offices, but to people who want information, communications and entertainment wherever they may be.
We attended our first Voice on the Net (VON) conference almost six years ago. Our recent visit gave us an opportunity to see how VoIP has moved from the hobbyist market to the mainstream, with low-cost IP phones on the horizon.
The editors at Communications Technology Magazine did a great job of summarizing our article in the April, 2003 issue. The cover shows a fortune cookie with the prediction: "You will advance triumphantly by re-examining some long-held assumptions about network infrastructure". Our article addresses the question of what could be achieved with the current cable infrastructure if MSOs rethink the way they deliver services. Other countries are also dealing with digital transition timing.
North American cable operators have long wanted to break the grip of their two principal vendors, who control the "conditional access" systems used to encrypt premium services. Sony's new Passage system offers them a way out -- and the potential for a competitive set-top box market.
SercoNet, a startup company with a novel approach to home networking, has launched its NetHome system providing standard Ethernet and Wi-Fi networking over existing home telephone wiring, while simultaneously carrying two analog phone lines. We talked with SercoNet's CEO about its strategy and direction.
The next issue of the report will cover last week's Broadband Wireless World conference, and will have a guest article on energy management over broadband.
We followed a reader's suggestion and made hyperlinks work better for some readers; and heard more about Vonage.
We made several major changes to our website: we redesigned the page layout to make it easier to find pages and to reduce the download time; we updated the Topical Index; and we made it possible to accommodate a limited number of sponsors and ads.
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