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89% of Google Fiberhoods Make the Cut

September 10, 2012 | Jeff Baumgartner |

Welcome to today's broadband and cable news roundup.

Google said at least 180 of the 202 "fiberhoods" (areas serving 250 to 1,500 homes) in the Kansas Cities had met their pre-registration goals just before Sunday night's deadline. Google said it will reveal all the fiberhoods that made the cut, and the order in which they will be constructed, on Thursday. But this means at least 89 percent of the fiberhoods involved in the first six-week Google Fiber "rally" will receive services, which include a $70 per month symmetrical 1Gbit/s service and an optional TV bundle that starts at $120 per month. Google Fiber has also committed to offer a 5Mbit/s downstream, 1Mbit/s upstream service for free for at least seven years to customers who agree to pay the upfront $300 construction fee.

As of Friday, only 66 percent of the fiberhoods had qualified for service. Once the final figures are tallied, Google Fiber will create its buildout plan and then open up the site so qualified households can pick and choose their services. Fiberhoods that didn't make the cut this time around will get a shot at a future rally, "sometime next year," Kevin Lo, general manager of Google Access, noted on the Google Fiber blog. (See Nearly 67% of Google's 'Fiberhoods' Reach Goal, How Long Will Google Keep the Fiber Flowing? and Google Fiber Bundles TV, Shuns Data Caps.)

  • Liberty Global Inc.'s multi-screen Horizon TV service is set to go live on Sept. 21 in the Netherlands, with UPC Switzerland set to go live within 60 days, followed by Ireland in the first quarter of 2013, reports Teresa Mastrangelo of Broadbandtrends LLC. Liberty Global took the wraps off Horizon TV at last week's IBC show in Amsterdam. UPC Netherlands will team Horizon TV with a 60Mbit/s (downstream) service for a six-month introductory price of €39.50 (US$50.50), or a 120Mbit/s bundle for €47.50 (US$60.73), Mastrangelo adds. (See Liberty Global Embarks on New TV Horizon.)

  • India's Tata Elxsi Ltd. is the latest vendor to license Comcast Corp.'s Reference Design Kit (RDK), a bundle of software for hybrid QAM/IP set-tops and gateways and IP-only video client devices. Tata Elxsi, like fellow licensees such as itaas Inc. and Silicon Software & Systems Ltd. (S3), will use the RDK to provide software development, integration and testing services for chip vendors and original equipment manufacturers. (See Comcast's Set-Top Accelerator Gains Traction .)

  • St. George Cable of St. George Island, Fla., is in hot water with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after a string of violations. The Commission has ordered the operator to pay $236,000 in fines for repeatedly failing to respond to the Commission, failing to install or maintain Emergency Alert System (EAS) equipment and violating signal-leakage rules. The signal leakage problem was so bad that the FCC, upon a re-inspection, ordered St. George Cable to suspend operations, but claims it did not comply. The FCC has given the operator 30 days to state, under penalty of perjury, that it's currently in compliance with the Commission's EAS and cable signal leakage rules.

    — Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable



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