Netflix Inc. complained to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) staffers this week that broadband caps are unfair to over-the-top video services. Netflix coupled its verbal argument with a slideshow titled "A Level Playing Field for Video" that points the finger at three service provider applications that are exempt from broadband consumption caps: Comcast Corp.'s Xfinity TV on Xbox 360, AT&T Inc.'s U-verse TV on Xbox 360, and Time Warner Cable Inc.'s iPad application. It goes on to outline a range of services that are subject to caps, including MLB.tv, Hulu Plus, Sony Corp.'s Crackle and, of course, Netflix.
Comcast has already argued that its app for the game console should be exempt because it's delivered over the MSO's private IP network and that it views the Xbox 360 as just another set-top box. The FCC's current rules do exempt managed video and voice services delivered over IP. (See Netflix CEO Keeps Whining About Comcast and Comcast's Xbox App Raises Net Neutrality Concerns.)
Arris Group Inc. will show off a Docsis 3.0 voice gateway with on-board Wi-Fi and Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) that can bond 16 downstream channels -- twice the downstream of current-generation D3 modems -- at The Cable Show in Boston. When fully loaded, the device, called the Touchstone Telephony Gateway TG1672 [Ed note: Sexy!], can provide downstream bursts of about 640 Mbit/s. Also on tap, the Media Services Platform MSP2800, a high-density edge QAM with Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) "migration ability" that's come out of its recent acquisition of BigBand Networks Inc. (See Arris/BigBand Could Resurrect Modular CCAP .)
Motorola Mobility Inc.shipped 19,821 downstream cable modem termination system (CMTS) channels in the first quarter along with 26,852 upstream ports, improving from the 12,013 downstreams and 11,252 upstreams it shipped in the year-ago quarter. Despite the gain, Moto will likely remain a distant third in CMTSs behind Cisco Systems Inc. and Arris. (See Cisco, Harmonic Rule Cable Access in Q3 .)
Mediacom Communications Corp.lost 5,000 video subscribers in the first quarter, narrowing the loss of 9,000 in the year-ago quarter, giving it a total of 591,000. The now privately held MSO also added 15,000 high-speed Internet customers and 6,000 phone subs, compared to 7,000 and 1,000, respectively, a year earlier.
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