Here's a snapshot of what's making waves in the cable world.
Verizon Wireless , the SpectrumCo LLC MSOs and Cox Communications Inc. are fighting a request by consumer pressure groups and several service providers, including Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S), DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV) and T-Mobile US Inc. , to provide non-redacted details of their mobile/cable service bundling agreements. The group says they need data as they prepare to comment on Verizon Wireless's proposed purchase of Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum from the MSOs. In a
letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) late last week, the Verizon Wireless/cable group argued that the commercial deal and the spectrum agreement are separate and that the Sprint/DirecTV contingent is merely trying "to gain access to proprietary pricing and marketing information" that they would never have access to in the normal course of business. They also point out that the commercial bundling agreements will remain intact even if license purchase deals are not approved. Verizon Wireless and the MSOs have submitted the full text of the agreements to the U.S. Department of Justice and have agreed to do the same for the FCC. Petitions to deny the AWS spectrum sale are due Feb. 21. (See Sparks Start to Fly in VZ Wireless-MSO Deal.)
Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq: NFLX) disclosed in an 8-K document that it agreed to pony up US$9 million to settle claims that it retained customer rental history and personal data illegally. The settlement, which still requires the court's blessing, stems from a 2011 lawsuit alleging that Netflix violated the Video Privacy Protection Act and California consumer laws. (See Netflix Privacy Concerns May Spark Lawsuit.)
Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) is looking to bring an Apple Store-like experience to its retail locations. The MSO is testing out a new Xfinity Store concept in Katy, Texas, where visitors are met by iPad-toting greeters who feed customer data into a queue system so customers can browse the store and use service kiosks while they wait. The MSO plans to bring the concept to new or refurbished stores, reports Houston CultureMap.
Boxee may ask users to pay up to $15 per month for a DVR subscription service, NewTeeVee reports, citing a survey issued to Boxee users over the weekend. Boxee's been non-committal about such an addition, but company CEO Avner Ronen said Friday on a "fireside chat" streamed on the Web that Boxee will see how its new live TV dongle performs before making any decisions about adding a DVR option. "We'll probably do it hopefully this year to support some form of recording or another," he said. (See Boxee Tees Up Live TV Cord-Cutting Tool .)
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)'s AdWorks LLC unit has agreed to let TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) mine anonymous data from U-verse TV subs to help the DVR pioneer generate a better sampling of U.S. television habits. AdWorks is looking to link advertisers with viewership data across mobile, online and traditional TV platforms.
YouTube Inc. channel pages and smoother navigation are among the features Google TV is promising in its latest YouTube app update via the Android Market.
What's making this confusing is that the bundling deals and the spectrum deals are being sorta tied together in this proceeding even though VZ Wireless and the MSOs have insisted that they shouldn't be.
They have agreed to give the details of the commercial agreements (the service bundling piece) to the DoJ and the FCC just to keep the spectrum approval process moving along, but now Sprint, DirecTV, et al, think they need to see all the details of the commercial agreements as well in order to comment on the spectrum sale proceeding.
By arguing that the spectrum deals are separate yet still allowing the DoJ and the FCC to look at the bundling agreements, I think the VZ Wireless/cable side has opened themselves up for this sort of request for access to the unredacted documents, though I'd be surprised if they are successful in getting them. JB
Kicking off BCE 2017, Light Reading founder Steve Saunders lays blame for NFV's slow ramp-up and urges telecom to return to old-fashioned standards building and interoperability.
Six different communications service providers join to debate their visions of the future CSP, following a landmark presentation from AT&T on its massive virtualization efforts and a look back on where the telecom industry has been and where it's going from two industry veterans.
Liz Centoni, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Computing System Product Group, shares why mentoring in all its forms is important for women and what Cisco is doing that's made a difference for women in tech.
At an event in Wembley stadium, EE used its live network to demonstrate gigabit LTE using a Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip.
Guavus unites big data and machine intelligence, enabling many of the the largest service providers in the world to save money and drive measureable revenue. Learn how applying Machine Intelligence substantially reduces operational costs and in many cases can eliminate subscriber impact, meaning a better subscriber experience and higher NPS.
When used to analyze operational data and to drive operational decisions, machine intelligence reduces the number of tasks which require human intervention. Guavus invested in Machine Intelligence early. Learn about the difference between Machine Learning and Machine Intelligence.
Ray Watson, vice president of global technology at Masergy, discusses the advantages and challenges in entering the still-maturing NFV market for the past three years.
Guillaume Le Mener, head of marketing and corporate development at Mavenir, discussed RCS and the recent launch of Multi-ID, which supports T-Mobile's DIGITS, the revolutionary new technology that breaks down the limitation of one number per phone and one phone per number.
Hossam Salib, VP of Cable and Wireless Strategy at ADTRAN, outlines key trends as MSOs begin to deploy next-generation Gigabit and 10-Gigabit cable networks. In the interview, Hossam outlines the advantages of a Fiber Deep architecture, FTTH options including EPON and RFoG, and the importance of SDN and NFV in building next-generation high-bandwidth cable networks.
At Light Reading's Big Communications Event in Austin, Texas, Global Capacity's VP of Marketing Mary Stanhope talks about how the demand for bandwidth is changing the way service providers deliver broadband services.
Rogier Bronsgeest, the chief customer experience officer (chief CEO!) at Colt, discusses the way in which the service provider interacts with its customers these days and his aggressive net promoter score (NPS) targets.
By 2020 there will be six security jobs for every qualified worker, and Kate Kuehn, vice president of Security for BT in the Americas, says BT wants to encourage women to fill the shortage in jobs.
Colt's sales director for enterprise, James Kershaw, sheds some light on the services currently in demand and how network upgrades are influencing customer demand.
At an event in Wembley stadium, EE used its live network to demonstrate gigabit LTE using a Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip.
Guavus unites big data and machine intelligence, enabling many of the the largest service providers in the world to save money and drive measureable revenue. Learn how applying Machine Intelligence substantially reduces operational costs and in many cases can eliminate subscriber impact, meaning a better subscriber experience and higher NPS.
When used to analyze operational data and to drive operational decisions, machine intelligence reduces the number of tasks which require human intervention. Guavus invested in Machine Intelligence early. Learn about the difference between Machine Learning and Machine Intelligence.
Hossam Salib, VP of Cable and Wireless Strategy at ADTRAN, outlines key trends as MSOs begin to deploy next-generation Gigabit and 10-Gigabit cable networks. In the interview, Hossam outlines the advantages of a Fiber Deep architecture, FTTH options including EPON and RFoG, and the importance of SDN and NFV in building next-generation high-bandwidth cable networks.
Dave Smargon of AIRSYS explains how doing smart things with air handling and air conditioning can enable cable to take big steps in the right direction with respect to efficiency gains.
Viavi's Koji Okamoto discusses CATV technology and trends with Alan Breznick of Light Reading. From DOCSIS 3.1 deployment to the impact of Distributed Access Architectures (DAA), bringing fiber closer to the home, and leveraging DWDM technology for business services.
At ANGA COM 2017, Cyrille Morelle, president and CEO of VeEX, updates Alan Breznick with VeEX's new products and technology. This includes VeSion cloud-based platform for network monitoring, AT2500-3G advanced spectrum analyzer and MTTplus-900 WiFi Air Expert module. He also comments on DOCSIS 3.1 deployment and Remote PHY technology.
SCTE•ISBE's Chris Bastian discusses Energy 2020's success to date and the importance of a flexible approach that allows for changes in specific strategies in order to reach significant milestones.
Versa CEO Kelly Ahuja discusses with Carol Wilson the current status and trends in the SD-WAN market, Versa's innovation around building a software platform with broad contextualization, and the advantages that startups can bring to the SD-WAN market.
ARRIS's John Ulm says a major accomplishment of SCTE•ISBE's Energy 2020 program is increased focus on power cost and consumption, including inclusion of energy requirements in operators' RFPs and RFIs.
A Gigabit access platform being deployed today must be able to deliver all types of services to an increasing number of devices. A non-blocking architecture is necessary to support the ever-increasing growth in bandwidth demand. The Huawei Gigabit access solution is based on a distributed design that is fully scalable to deliver a unprecedented performance.
As service providers transition their SD-WAN solution from trials and limited deployments into production at large scale, there are important considerations to successfully operationalize these solutions and realize their full potential, without adding complexity, introducing uncertainty or disrupting current business operations. Sunil Khandekar, CEO and Founder ...
With the mobile ecosystem becoming increasingly vulnerable to security threats, AdaptiveMobile has laid out some of the key considerations for the wireless community.
Following a recent board meeting, the New IP Agency (NIA) has a new strategy to help accelerate the adoption of NFV capabilities, explains the Agency's Founder and Secretary, Steve Saunders.
One of the nice bits of my job (other than the teeny tiny salary, obviously) is that I get to pick and choose who I interview for this slot on the Light Reading home ...
Playing it safe can only get you so far. Sometimes the biggest bets have the biggest payouts, and that is true in your career as well. For this radio show, Caroline Chan, general manager of the 5G Infrastructure Division of the Network Platform Group at Intel, will share her own personal story of how she successfully took big bets to build a successful career, as well as offer advice on how you can do the same. We’ll cover everything from how to overcome fear and manage risk, how to be prepared for where technology is going in the future and how to structure your career in a way to ensure you keep progressing. Chan, a seasoned telecom veteran and effective risk taker herself, will also leave plenty of time to answer all your questions live on the air.
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Kicking off BCE 2017, Light Reading founder Steve Saunders lays blame for NFV's slow ramp-up and urges telecom to return to old-fashioned standards building and interoperability.
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