CONNECTIONS Europe is now accepting submissions for speakers at the upcoming Summit in Amsterdam on April 27, 2010. Deadline for submission is March 1.
CONNECTIONS Europe Agenda will include:
- Advanced television services
- The residential gateway and the set-top box
- Consumer buying habits, service and product preferences, and future purchase intentions
- Business models and opportunities for TV operators, content developers, advertisers, and CE companies
- Impact and market outlook for new technologies, including 3D TV
Here is the direct link to submit:
http://www.parksassociates.com/events/europe/2010/amsterdam/agenda/call-for-papers.htm
For more information about CONNECTIONS Europe, visit, www.CONNECTIONSeurope.com.
Showing posts with label residential gateways. Show all posts
Showing posts with label residential gateways. Show all posts
Friday, February 5, 2010
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
"Connected Europe: By the Numbers," follow up from CONN EU Amsterdam
Kurt Scherf, VP of Research and Principal Analyst of Parks Associates presented "Connected Europe: By the Numbers" at the CONNECTIONS Europe Summit held November 4th in Amsterdam.
Kurt discussed the scope of Parks Associates research in the digital home and particularly in Europe. The past 18 – 24 months have brought strong development of connected CE devices such as TVs and Blu-ray players – large percentage of these devices are now connected. The role of the service provider is critical with providing the links to content and serving as gateway to premium content (BBC iPlayer, Verizon’s OTT offerings).
Residential Gateways are becoming increasingly important, with the other 50% of installations featuring an RG. For consumers, advantages are monitoring and basic applications. The presence of an RG rates highly with customer satisfaction with service provider services. Important RG services include the following: support, security, warranty services, and online backup. There are large opportunities for service provides who offer total home network support.
Things to watch in the Connected CE space include: the role of service providers in driving home network architecture; cloud media and home content brought together; design of user interfaces; integration of web services; role of CE companies at offering services; and evolution of content protection.
Kurt discussed the scope of Parks Associates research in the digital home and particularly in Europe. The past 18 – 24 months have brought strong development of connected CE devices such as TVs and Blu-ray players – large percentage of these devices are now connected. The role of the service provider is critical with providing the links to content and serving as gateway to premium content (BBC iPlayer, Verizon’s OTT offerings).
Residential Gateways are becoming increasingly important, with the other 50% of installations featuring an RG. For consumers, advantages are monitoring and basic applications. The presence of an RG rates highly with customer satisfaction with service provider services. Important RG services include the following: support, security, warranty services, and online backup. There are large opportunities for service provides who offer total home network support.
Things to watch in the Connected CE space include: the role of service providers in driving home network architecture; cloud media and home content brought together; design of user interfaces; integration of web services; role of CE companies at offering services; and evolution of content protection.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Decreasing Piracy in the Modern Digital Environment
At the upcoming CONNECTIONS Europe event in Amsterdam, I will be taking part in the "Digital Furnace: Residential Gateways and Set-Top Boxes" paneldiscussion, which will explore the increasingly popular 'home hub' experience.This is an especially critical topic for the industry right now as it considers hardware developments, environmental factors, applications, and features as well as content delivery and protection.
Currently, consumer demand for media-rich home entertainment services is driving innovation and new revenue opportunities in the set-top box industry. Next generation set-top boxes will integrate video content from multiple signal sources such as broadcast television, premium video-on-demand and Internet-based services. They will also provide value-added capabilities like time-shifting and enabling content to be distributed to a variety of viewing devices including multi-room TV networks, personal computers, portable media players, and other mobile devices.
Yet this level of source variety and content portability is inherently more susceptible to piracy attacks, which dramatically increases the complexity of security requirements. Set-top boxes, their associated conditional access systems and digital rights management technologies are under constant threat from device tampering, software security breaches and hacker attacks that can significantly impact the reputation and bottom line for both set-top box manufacturers and operators.
How do manufacturers and operators alike achieve sustainable security in the set-top box ecosystem thus preparing their devices to safely deliver high-value premium content to global consumers?
If the manufacturers get it right, they can fight against attacks, while creating a profitable business model.
The “Digital Furnace: Residential Gateways and Set-Top Boxes” panel discussion will take place at CONNECTIONS Europe, Amsterdam on Wednesday 4th November, 2009 at 11.45 a.m. CET.
By Andrew Wajs, CTO, Irdeto
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Evolution of the “Digital Furnace”: Residential Gateways and Set-top Boxes
New trends such as cloud computing, green living, mobile connectivity, and hybrid Internet-TV services are reshaping the role of the set-top box. Carriers, squeezed by low subscriber revenues and the demand for more features, need a home hub that offers more capability for less capital.
The Evolution of the “Digital Furnace”: Residential Gateways and Set-top Boxes session explores:
-- The evolution of features that home hubs will support
-- Support for features such as home monitoring, energy management, and health monitoring
-- Network and hardware requirements for “future-proofed” home hubs
-- The role of retail-purchased consumer electronics as compatible nodes
Art Lancaster, CTO, Affinegy
Christer Larsson, CEO and Co-founder, Makewave (formerly Gatespace Telematics AB); VP EMEA, OSGi Alliance
Bill Stanley, Executive Director, Operations Solutions, Telcordia
Frederic Van Durme, Head of Product Management, Thomson
Andrew Wajs, CTO, Irdeto Group, Irdeto/Cloakware
Moderator: Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates
Friday, October 2, 2009
Residential Gateways & Set-top Boxes at CONNECTIONS Europe, Amsterdam
New trends such as cloud computing, green living, mobile connectivity, and hybrid Internet-TV services are reshaping the role of the set-top box. Carriers, squeezed by low subscriber revenues and the demand for more features, need a home hub that offers more capability for less capital.The Residential Gateways & Set-top Box session at CONNECTIONS Europe explores:
* The evolution of features that home hubs will support
* Support for features such as home monitoring, energy management, and health monitoring
* Network and hardware requirements for “future-proofed” home hubs
* The role of retail-purchased consumer electronics as compatible nodes
Speakers are represented from Affinegy, OSGi Alliance, Telcordia, and Irdeto/Cloakware.
Monday, September 14, 2009
CONNECTIONS Europe agenda: Connected Devices & Services
CONNECTIONS Europe will be held in Amsterdam
- Internet video and the TV experience
- Cloud computing and advanced TV and communications services
- Residential gateway or set-top box
- The impact of 3D TV
- The three-screen ecosystem
- The interface for online and user-generated content
- The companies best positioned to lead the connected home ecosystem
Attending CONNECTIONS
- The development roadmap of the technologies and applications that will define the European and global digital lifestyle
- Identification of existing and emerging leaders in the connected home ecosystem
- Adoption and revenue forecasts of key connected device and service categories
- An examination of the business models which will drive the convergence in video and entertainment content and applications, online services, and communications.
Friday, August 28, 2009
European share of worldwide connected CE market approximately 40%
CONNECTIONS Europe to address connectivity, convergence as sales of connected consumer electronics double between 2009 and 2013--
CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit released the preliminary agenda for its upcoming executive conference, November 4, 2009, which will feature consumer research and expert analysis on the role of connected consumer electronics (CE) and related services in the connected home ecosystem.
The event, titled The Roadmap for Connected Consumer Electronics and hosted by international research firm Parks Associates, will take place in Amsterdam at the Mövenpick Hotel. The Summit features insight into European and global consumer markets from expert analysts and high-level executives representing the top international players in the markets for advanced digital products and services.
The sale and installation of home network-enabled consumer electronics products will more than double between 2009 and 2013 to more than 100 million units annually. The European market will be particularly strong in such categories as connected TVs, game consoles, Blu-ray players, network-attached storage, alternative set-top boxes, and whole-home DVRs. Sales and installations of such products in Europe will grow from 20 million units in 2009 to almost 40 million by 2013.
CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit will quantify demand and address the challenges and opportunities created as these Internet-capable devices are added the network in order to share content and expand interactive services. Rob Timmer, Senior Director Net TV, BU TV, Philips Consumer Lifestyle, will deliver the event’s Keynote Address.
Summit Sessions
Connected Europe: Trends and Numbers
Defining the New Video Experience
Evolution of the “Digital Furnace”: Residential Gateways and Set-top Boxes
Business Models for On-Demand Lifestyles
Enabling Technologies: Connecting It All
Wrapping It Up – Predictions for the Next Five Years
Deadline for speaker submissions is August 28, 2009.
Visit http://www.connectionseurope.com/ to submit or to register for the event.
Monday, July 6, 2009
2Wire Follows up on Residential Gateways
As CONNECTIONS™ was originally designated as "The Residential Gateway Conference" in its inaugural year (1997), it's great to bring leaders in this space together every year for a refresh and a look ahead. This is exactly what we did in Santa Clara last month, with a panel titled Service Provider Home Networking Strategies: RGs and Services.
The residential gateway's role for telecom services has become better defined with each year, and the rollout of advanced broadband services, bundles, and telco/IPTV will continue to drive growth. From our recent report Home Networks for Consumer Electronics, we anticipate that residential gateawy deployments will grow from 36% in 2009 to 52% in 2013. The nature of residential gateway deployments among cable operators is a really interesting area to watch right now, with debate on both sides to the merit and need as of this point. However, it's clear that - at least for certain service providers - the reliance of advanced customer premise equipment in faciliating both consumer-facing and backend services and actions - is critical.
Jayant Dasari led a conversation at CONNECTIONS with a number of leading vendors. We have some follow-up responses to share from Jaime Fink, Vice President of Technology and Strategy at 2Wire.
Parks Associates: What are the key hardware and middleware components that need to fall into place for the RG to take on the role of media center in the home?
Jaime Fink: We see two clear gaps that need to be filled for the residential gateway to assume the role of media center in the home:
The first gap is the lack of clearly a defined home networking standard for distribution of media to fixed devices (TVs and STBs) and mobile devices. The race is on, with competition heating up between a variety of wired technologies – none of which have captured either retail or service provider acceptance in a unified fashion – and the increasingly popular wireless technologies. With recent advances in wired technologies like ITU G.hn, as well as the silicon advances in the 5GHz spectrum of wireless 802.11n by expanding up to 4x4 radio implementations, it appears that both wired and wireless technologies will benefit from significant improvements in the very near future. While it’s too early to call a winner in this race, it is safe to say, if the market continues moving toward support for connected TVs and DLNA devices, that wireless is the more desirable approach, especially in areas of the world where wiring quality remains substandard.
The second gap is the lack of a unified user experience for access to multiple content sources and next generation digital home applications. While DLNA has achieved some success in this area, it has not been fully embraced by the public, due to shortcomings in both user experience and legal accessibility of desirable content, including broadcast television, DVR, and over-the-top content. A new approach to user experience must be introduced – one that enables the home media hub to integrate all of these content sources and next generation applications into a single, consistent user experience for television, mobility, and digital home applications. It also means that an acceptable approach to DRM within the home must be established to prevent the various renderers (TVs/STBs, IP-connected Blu-Ray players, etc.) from implementing multiple divergent DRM techniques.
Parks Associates: What will be the major cost drivers? Is there an industry consensus on what the price point needs to be at in order to promote a wider acceptance of RG for all residential services?
Jaime Fink: In determining price points, consumer demand will play a larger role than production costs, as residential gateways and other CPE are typically subsidized by the service provider. However, the intention of gateway manufacturers such as 2Wire is to gradually add only incremental cost to the gateway as more processing power and home networking technologies are added. This will serve to keep the cost basis relatively competitive with other gateway technologies, while aligning today’s costs with tomorrow’s services.
It is important to note, however, that additional peripheral home products and technologies will likely be required, including a very large hard disk, and perhaps technologies such as Zigbee for home automation and home monitoring. Service providers are leaning toward requiring that consumers determine – and pay for – the size of hard disk that corresponds to the amount of storage they require, and this disk must be easily attachable to the gateway (via cable, snap-on SATA, or USB 3.0 connections). This modular approach to the hardware keeps the base gateway systems reasonably affordable, allowing them to be given away or largely subsidized, letting consumers add hardware features as needed to support desired applications and services.
Parks Associates: What are some of the concerns that operators have in deploying an RG that is capable of serving as a multi-service delivery platform?
Jaime Fink: The biggest concern seems to be the lack of a single standard that could be used to manage services. There are several management approaches and service architectures available (TR-069, OMA-DM, OSGi), but none provide a common approach that solves all the needs of the multi-service platform in the home. There are several efforts in standards bodies to align these approaches, facilitating the addition of new APIs to encourage the development of next generation services, but this will take some time to achieve. In the meantime, it is important to begin implementing solutions that prove the value proposition and ease-of-integration with the service provider’s architecture. Only by establishing such proof points can we promise a true turnkey solution that enables services and content from any source in the service provider’s architecture.
Parks Associates: What value added services do you envision the service providers introducing via an RG in the next 12-18 months?
Jaime Fink: The initial demand is for a whole-home storage and backup solution for multiple PCs in the home, including ‘super-backup’ of the most valuable content to a secured Internet-based storage disk. Additionally, there is strong demand for home monitoring solutions, including a variety of camera and other ‘lifestyle’ sensors which provide peace of mind and limit damage in emergencies.
Parks Associates: Will embedded storage be an important component in RGs?
Jaime Fink: YES! The residential gateway is ideally positioned for embedded storage, as it is the center of the home network, accessible to every device, with typically fast link speeds with each device. With cloud-based storage, average users are limited by very slow uplink speeds – sometimes upwards of two months! By contrast, in-home networked storage provides superior speed and user experience, and can even help organize the user’s media library. In the future, as IPTV and IP-connected televisions increase in popularity, the home network storage disk will be the logical solution for caching VoD content and live broadcast TV for availability to all the television sets in the home.
The residential gateway's role for telecom services has become better defined with each year, and the rollout of advanced broadband services, bundles, and telco/IPTV will continue to drive growth. From our recent report Home Networks for Consumer Electronics, we anticipate that residential gateawy deployments will grow from 36% in 2009 to 52% in 2013. The nature of residential gateway deployments among cable operators is a really interesting area to watch right now, with debate on both sides to the merit and need as of this point. However, it's clear that - at least for certain service providers - the reliance of advanced customer premise equipment in faciliating both consumer-facing and backend services and actions - is critical.
Jayant Dasari led a conversation at CONNECTIONS with a number of leading vendors. We have some follow-up responses to share from Jaime Fink, Vice President of Technology and Strategy at 2Wire.
Parks Associates: What are the key hardware and middleware components that need to fall into place for the RG to take on the role of media center in the home?
Jaime Fink: We see two clear gaps that need to be filled for the residential gateway to assume the role of media center in the home:
The first gap is the lack of clearly a defined home networking standard for distribution of media to fixed devices (TVs and STBs) and mobile devices. The race is on, with competition heating up between a variety of wired technologies – none of which have captured either retail or service provider acceptance in a unified fashion – and the increasingly popular wireless technologies. With recent advances in wired technologies like ITU G.hn, as well as the silicon advances in the 5GHz spectrum of wireless 802.11n by expanding up to 4x4 radio implementations, it appears that both wired and wireless technologies will benefit from significant improvements in the very near future. While it’s too early to call a winner in this race, it is safe to say, if the market continues moving toward support for connected TVs and DLNA devices, that wireless is the more desirable approach, especially in areas of the world where wiring quality remains substandard.
The second gap is the lack of a unified user experience for access to multiple content sources and next generation digital home applications. While DLNA has achieved some success in this area, it has not been fully embraced by the public, due to shortcomings in both user experience and legal accessibility of desirable content, including broadcast television, DVR, and over-the-top content. A new approach to user experience must be introduced – one that enables the home media hub to integrate all of these content sources and next generation applications into a single, consistent user experience for television, mobility, and digital home applications. It also means that an acceptable approach to DRM within the home must be established to prevent the various renderers (TVs/STBs, IP-connected Blu-Ray players, etc.) from implementing multiple divergent DRM techniques.
Parks Associates: What will be the major cost drivers? Is there an industry consensus on what the price point needs to be at in order to promote a wider acceptance of RG for all residential services?
Jaime Fink: In determining price points, consumer demand will play a larger role than production costs, as residential gateways and other CPE are typically subsidized by the service provider. However, the intention of gateway manufacturers such as 2Wire is to gradually add only incremental cost to the gateway as more processing power and home networking technologies are added. This will serve to keep the cost basis relatively competitive with other gateway technologies, while aligning today’s costs with tomorrow’s services.
It is important to note, however, that additional peripheral home products and technologies will likely be required, including a very large hard disk, and perhaps technologies such as Zigbee for home automation and home monitoring. Service providers are leaning toward requiring that consumers determine – and pay for – the size of hard disk that corresponds to the amount of storage they require, and this disk must be easily attachable to the gateway (via cable, snap-on SATA, or USB 3.0 connections). This modular approach to the hardware keeps the base gateway systems reasonably affordable, allowing them to be given away or largely subsidized, letting consumers add hardware features as needed to support desired applications and services.
Parks Associates: What are some of the concerns that operators have in deploying an RG that is capable of serving as a multi-service delivery platform?
Jaime Fink: The biggest concern seems to be the lack of a single standard that could be used to manage services. There are several management approaches and service architectures available (TR-069, OMA-DM, OSGi), but none provide a common approach that solves all the needs of the multi-service platform in the home. There are several efforts in standards bodies to align these approaches, facilitating the addition of new APIs to encourage the development of next generation services, but this will take some time to achieve. In the meantime, it is important to begin implementing solutions that prove the value proposition and ease-of-integration with the service provider’s architecture. Only by establishing such proof points can we promise a true turnkey solution that enables services and content from any source in the service provider’s architecture.
Parks Associates: What value added services do you envision the service providers introducing via an RG in the next 12-18 months?
Jaime Fink: The initial demand is for a whole-home storage and backup solution for multiple PCs in the home, including ‘super-backup’ of the most valuable content to a secured Internet-based storage disk. Additionally, there is strong demand for home monitoring solutions, including a variety of camera and other ‘lifestyle’ sensors which provide peace of mind and limit damage in emergencies.
Parks Associates: Will embedded storage be an important component in RGs?
Jaime Fink: YES! The residential gateway is ideally positioned for embedded storage, as it is the center of the home network, accessible to every device, with typically fast link speeds with each device. With cloud-based storage, average users are limited by very slow uplink speeds – sometimes upwards of two months! By contrast, in-home networked storage provides superior speed and user experience, and can even help organize the user’s media library. In the future, as IPTV and IP-connected televisions increase in popularity, the home network storage disk will be the logical solution for caching VoD content and live broadcast TV for availability to all the television sets in the home.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Partner communications selects jungo's openrg™ software for new smartbox™ gateway
Jungo Ltd, a leading provider of broadband residential gateway software solutions, and Partner Communications, a leading Israeli mobile telecoms operator, have reached an agreement that sees Jungo integrating its OpenRG™ residential gateway software into Partner's new SmartBox™ home gateway, part of the operator's innovative new home communications offering.OpenRG software delivers Partner Communications a range of capabilities as well as a platform for introducing and launching new value added services. With Jungo's remote upgrade capability, an operator can load customized middleware onto deployed gateways from almost any vendor, and therefore can introduce new services without the need to replace its installed base. OpenRG also provides a suite of functionalities to substantially reduce operational costs. These include transparent fault-finding, and user-focused troubleshooting that helps minimize support calls.
With SmartBox, launched in December 2008, Partner Communications' customers will enjoy advanced broadband services such as 802.11n wireless network, advanced VoIP capabilities including integrated DECT, call hijacking between cellular and fixed line, home media sharing and other services.
OpenRG is a hardware-agnostic gateway software platform which gives operators maximum freedom in selecting gateway hardware, and thanks to its remote upgrade capability, OpenRG provides full flexibility for future service enhancements. This saves operators substantial costs when expanding and upgrading existing and future gateway designs.
Jungo Ltd., an NDS Group company, is a provider of broadband home value-added service solutions. Jungo's flagship products, OpenRG™ (residential gateway software platform) and OpenSMB™ (small and medium business gateway software platform) enable broadband Operators to deliver managed revenue-generating services to the digital home.
Jungo's CEO, Eran Rom is also confirmed to speak at the upcoming CONNECTIONS Europe Summit in Nice, France on March 31st.
To find out more about Jungo, please visit http://www.jungo.com/.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
RG's establish a critical foothold for service providers in Europe
Parks Associates will host a panel at CONNECTIONS Europe called "Residential Gateways – Devices Enabling New Services." Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates will moderate this panel.
The number of worldwide households with residential gateways facilitating broadband sharing, remote management and service provisioning, and/or value-added services will grow from 17 million in 2007 to approximately 72 million by year-end 2012. Residential gateway deployment via the France Telecom Group’s Livebox® solution (a Thomson product) has already matched – if not exceeded – deployment of the service provider-deployed home networks in the U.S. market. In a European environment characterized by regulators’ goal to allow customers to choose individual service providers for a variety of their communications and entertainment services, the residential gateway establishes a critical foothold for the service providers.
Topics of discussion at the panel at CONNECTIONS Europe include the evolution of the residential gateway in terms of new features and functionality (from converged voice to media management to storage and home controls), home networking requirements from the service provider community, and device manageability.
Hans-Joerg Kolbe, Senior Researcher, NEC Europe
Christer Larsson, CEO, OSGi Alliance / Makewave AB
Klaus Milczewsky, Senior Manager for Innovation Management, Technology Management Products & Innovation, Home Gateway Initiative / Deutsche Telekom
Frederic Onado, Vice President EMEA, HomePlug Powerline Alliance; Vice President, Marketing & Sales, SPiDCOM Technologies
Jim Wallace, Director, Emerging & Home, Segment Marketing, ARM
The number of worldwide households with residential gateways facilitating broadband sharing, remote management and service provisioning, and/or value-added services will grow from 17 million in 2007 to approximately 72 million by year-end 2012. Residential gateway deployment via the France Telecom Group’s Livebox® solution (a Thomson product) has already matched – if not exceeded – deployment of the service provider-deployed home networks in the U.S. market. In a European environment characterized by regulators’ goal to allow customers to choose individual service providers for a variety of their communications and entertainment services, the residential gateway establishes a critical foothold for the service providers.
Topics of discussion at the panel at CONNECTIONS Europe include the evolution of the residential gateway in terms of new features and functionality (from converged voice to media management to storage and home controls), home networking requirements from the service provider community, and device manageability.
Hans-Joerg Kolbe, Senior Researcher, NEC Europe
Christer Larsson, CEO, OSGi Alliance / Makewave AB
Klaus Milczewsky, Senior Manager for Innovation Management, Technology Management Products & Innovation, Home Gateway Initiative / Deutsche Telekom
Frederic Onado, Vice President EMEA, HomePlug Powerline Alliance; Vice President, Marketing & Sales, SPiDCOM Technologies
Jim Wallace, Director, Emerging & Home, Segment Marketing, ARM
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Home Networks Heating Up
Today, the HomePlug Alliance announced that a joint proposal from the Alliance and Panasonic is the sole MAC/PHY proposal remaining in the IEEE P1901 work group process for creating an international standard for in-home and access powerline communication technologies. This is significant, because Panasonic was pursuing its own proprietary powerline solution (HD-PLC) after its submission to HomePlug for the HomePlug AV specification was not selected. For awhile, we had three competing solutions - HomePlug, Panasonic, and the solutions from Spanish chip developer Design of Systems of Silicon S.A. (DS2).
Although DS2's underlying technology was not selected by the IEEE P1901 work group, the company isn't sitting still. It indicates that it will have a 400 Mbps solution out soon. And, DS2 has an impressive list of European service providers that it says are taking a look at its solution. Europe may be where this market is won or lost. Given the strong emphasis on solutions such as bridges for IPTV and multi-service residential gateways, Europe is likely to be the leading market for powerline solutions. We're waiting to see which service providers and CPE vendors are willing to go public with their support for either the HomePlug or the DS2 solution. One suspects that many are waiting for a standards resolution in the IEEE before making a public affirmation of either technology.
In the meantime, both Entropic/MoCA and CopperGate/HomePNA were quite visible at last week's TelcoTV conference. CopperGate has announced 2 million HomePNA 3.1 chipsets shipped, and indications are that it is receiving favorable attention from the smaller telco community. As in the case of the powerline solutions, we're evaluating based on real deployments. So far, Verizon with MoCA is the only public deployment of which we're aware to date.
~Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates
Although DS2's underlying technology was not selected by the IEEE P1901 work group, the company isn't sitting still. It indicates that it will have a 400 Mbps solution out soon. And, DS2 has an impressive list of European service providers that it says are taking a look at its solution. Europe may be where this market is won or lost. Given the strong emphasis on solutions such as bridges for IPTV and multi-service residential gateways, Europe is likely to be the leading market for powerline solutions. We're waiting to see which service providers and CPE vendors are willing to go public with their support for either the HomePlug or the DS2 solution. One suspects that many are waiting for a standards resolution in the IEEE before making a public affirmation of either technology.
In the meantime, both Entropic/MoCA and CopperGate/HomePNA were quite visible at last week's TelcoTV conference. CopperGate has announced 2 million HomePNA 3.1 chipsets shipped, and indications are that it is receiving favorable attention from the smaller telco community. As in the case of the powerline solutions, we're evaluating based on real deployments. So far, Verizon with MoCA is the only public deployment of which we're aware to date.
~Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Triple-play Support: The View from the Home Network
Summary information from Day 2: CONNECTIONS™ May 2007, hosted in Santa Clara, CA
This panel addresses the role of residential gateways, advanced CPE, and service provisioning and networking maintenance tools in reducing support costs for the service provider and enhancing the bottom line.
Duncan Bees, Deputy Chairman of the HGI Quality of Service Working Group, PMC-Sierra, Inc. Wayne Davis, Technical Advisory Board, Peak8 Solutions
Richard Nesin, Vice President, Marketing, CopperGate Communications
Tushar Saxena, Director, Home Networking Technologies, Verizon Communications
Michael Stich, Director, Service Provider Strategic Marketing, Texas Instruments
Ofer Vilenski, CEO, Jungo Software Technologies
Moderator: Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates
Panelists discussed the required features of an end-to-end broadband and in-home network ecosystem as managed by a service provider. Kurt Scherf introduced the topic by indicating Parks Associates’ research predicts service providers will manage upwards of 30% of the home networks, via smart residential gateways, deployed by year-end 2010. Scherf further indicated that if the industry is to provide sufficient support for advanced services, it must build solutions to address the following issues:
This panel addresses the role of residential gateways, advanced CPE, and service provisioning and networking maintenance tools in reducing support costs for the service provider and enhancing the bottom line.
Duncan Bees, Deputy Chairman of the HGI Quality of Service Working Group, PMC-Sierra, Inc. Wayne Davis, Technical Advisory Board, Peak8 Solutions
Richard Nesin, Vice President, Marketing, CopperGate Communications
Tushar Saxena, Director, Home Networking Technologies, Verizon Communications
Michael Stich, Director, Service Provider Strategic Marketing, Texas Instruments
Ofer Vilenski, CEO, Jungo Software Technologies
Moderator: Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates
Panelists discussed the required features of an end-to-end broadband and in-home network ecosystem as managed by a service provider. Kurt Scherf introduced the topic by indicating Parks Associates’ research predicts service providers will manage upwards of 30% of the home networks, via smart residential gateways, deployed by year-end 2010. Scherf further indicated that if the industry is to provide sufficient support for advanced services, it must build solutions to address the following issues:
- CPE installation and configuration;
- Service provisioning;
- Diagnostics and monitoring;
- Remote support;
- Telephone support; and
- On-site support.
The panelists represented a diverse spectrum of companies involved in the end-to-end management of broadband and home network services. Wayne Davis, representing Peak8 Solutions, indicated that they are focused on solutions for both the customer as well as the help-desk agent. Rich Nesin at CopperGate discussed QoS monitoring that is made possible through home networking chipsets. Michael Stich at Texas Instruments discussed the company’s DSP-based monitoring and measurement solutions, notably PIQUA™. Ofer Vilenski from Jungo discussed the role of residential gateway software in monitoring, management, and easing service provisioning. Duncan Bees from PMC-Sierra discussed the Home Gateway Initiative (HGi) and its goal of helping service providers deploy more standardized management and provisioning solutions. Tushar Saxena from Verizon said that the service provider’s biggest challenges today are installing broadband and home networking services and platforms with minimal expense; ensuring interoperability between different customer premise equipment; and making troubleshooting more efficient.
Clearly, service providers face growing challenges as they take on the responsibility for deploying a growing number of converged services. Ofer Vilenski mentioned that customer support costs in the first year of a subscriber’s service to a triple-play service can often exceed the dollars spent on the home networking equipment. The panelists believe that there is no firm business model for monetizing support at present, fearing that a fee-based business model may alienate customers today. Instead, enhanced customer support could actually be a good differentiator for service providers to set themselves apart from their competitors.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Carriers as "Experience Providers"
Summary information from Day 2: CONNECTIONS™ May 2007, hosted in Santa Clara, CA.
Carriers as "Experience Providers"
This panel addresses the new focus on consumer experiences with an examination of changing business models, enabling solutions for service providers, and fixed-mobile convergence trends.
Jay Deen, Vice President of Technology, Casero, Inc.
Kai Hackbarth, Requirements Chair, OSGi Alliance
Keith Higgins, VP, Marketing, Stoke, Inc.
Ellis Lindsay, Home Networking and Digital Lifestyle SME, Alcatel-Lucent
Kirk Munroe, Director, Product Management, Radialpoint
John Ulm, Fellow of the Technical Staff, Connected Home Solutions, Motorola, Inc.
Moderator: Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, Director, Broadband & Gaming, Parks Associates
In 2006, U.S. broadband penetration reached 50% while bandwidth costs year over year have been plummeting. The next step is for service providers to move beyond selling raw bandwidth and start focusing on smart bandwidth and smart-home applications. They need to leverage the multiple screens they own and deliver cross-platform experiences based on convergence networks. The panel discussed this transition, including what’s happening and what’s to come. The panel also addressed the opportunities for hardware and software solution providers. For instance, a residential gateway is likely to be a key enabling platform for service providers. France Telecom has shipped more than 4 million LiveBoxes to date, and their success with the “unik” fixed-mobile convergence phone service is partially because of the large installed base of LiveBoxes.
Bundling is another megatrend in the carrier market. Cable MSOs are killing telcos in certain markets due to their triple-play success. Fifty percent of Comcast’s new broadband subscribers in Q1 2007 churned from telecom carriers. Consumers are likely to focus first on discounts and on-bill convenience but will eventually demand convergence features. Carriers need to make sure they educate consumers along the way.
Right now, the most successful VAS offerings on the broadband platform are still PC and home network security, although other services are gaining traction. According to Radialpoint, 15% of customers for their carrier clients buy security services from broadband carriers, and it has become a sizable revenue stream. The next step is to provide network-based backup, sharing, and community services. Exclusive content may also be a differentiator, and major carriers have begun investing heavily in content.
Another topic discussed was that consumers don’t always need to foot the bill for the services they receive. Carriers can become arbitrators between consumers and businesses to provide “validated bandwidth” in a similar way to restaurants validating parking for their patrons. However this requires carriers to know more about their subscribers and leverage that knowledge in order to deliver targeted advertisements relevant to consumers. Carriers have not monetized user information very well and have a long way to go before they can catch up with Google and other over-the-top providers. Over-the-top is definitely a threat, but quality will always be important – and carriers can provide that quality with their managed network. Carriers have also begun to use more white-label solutions instead of partnering with companies like Yahoo! and MSN for their Internet services.
IMS will be an important platform if the industry is to realize this vision of experience-based services. Carriers need to improve both the front and back ends of their platforms. Right now the technology is still at an early stage, but investment in the next few years will be significant. IMS will enable carriers to provision new services on the fly. Right now developers have demonstrated only limited applications, but IMS is like IP — it has unlimited potential. However, it will take many years for carriers to transition to the IMS platform. Having the ability to provide both wireless and wireless services will also be extremely important for large carriers. The cell phone will be the key for consumers to access other personalized services, and with more and more broadband-enabled cell phones on the market, broadband solution providers need to begin addressing this platform. Universal parental control and security will also be important. In the end, if carriers can make consumers’ lives easier and more comfortable, they’ll make money.
Carriers as "Experience Providers"
This panel addresses the new focus on consumer experiences with an examination of changing business models, enabling solutions for service providers, and fixed-mobile convergence trends.
Jay Deen, Vice President of Technology, Casero, Inc.
Kai Hackbarth, Requirements Chair, OSGi Alliance
Keith Higgins, VP, Marketing, Stoke, Inc.
Ellis Lindsay, Home Networking and Digital Lifestyle SME, Alcatel-Lucent
Kirk Munroe, Director, Product Management, Radialpoint
John Ulm, Fellow of the Technical Staff, Connected Home Solutions, Motorola, Inc.
Moderator: Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, Director, Broadband & Gaming, Parks Associates
In 2006, U.S. broadband penetration reached 50% while bandwidth costs year over year have been plummeting. The next step is for service providers to move beyond selling raw bandwidth and start focusing on smart bandwidth and smart-home applications. They need to leverage the multiple screens they own and deliver cross-platform experiences based on convergence networks. The panel discussed this transition, including what’s happening and what’s to come. The panel also addressed the opportunities for hardware and software solution providers. For instance, a residential gateway is likely to be a key enabling platform for service providers. France Telecom has shipped more than 4 million LiveBoxes to date, and their success with the “unik” fixed-mobile convergence phone service is partially because of the large installed base of LiveBoxes.
Bundling is another megatrend in the carrier market. Cable MSOs are killing telcos in certain markets due to their triple-play success. Fifty percent of Comcast’s new broadband subscribers in Q1 2007 churned from telecom carriers. Consumers are likely to focus first on discounts and on-bill convenience but will eventually demand convergence features. Carriers need to make sure they educate consumers along the way.
Right now, the most successful VAS offerings on the broadband platform are still PC and home network security, although other services are gaining traction. According to Radialpoint, 15% of customers for their carrier clients buy security services from broadband carriers, and it has become a sizable revenue stream. The next step is to provide network-based backup, sharing, and community services. Exclusive content may also be a differentiator, and major carriers have begun investing heavily in content.
Another topic discussed was that consumers don’t always need to foot the bill for the services they receive. Carriers can become arbitrators between consumers and businesses to provide “validated bandwidth” in a similar way to restaurants validating parking for their patrons. However this requires carriers to know more about their subscribers and leverage that knowledge in order to deliver targeted advertisements relevant to consumers. Carriers have not monetized user information very well and have a long way to go before they can catch up with Google and other over-the-top providers. Over-the-top is definitely a threat, but quality will always be important – and carriers can provide that quality with their managed network. Carriers have also begun to use more white-label solutions instead of partnering with companies like Yahoo! and MSN for their Internet services.
IMS will be an important platform if the industry is to realize this vision of experience-based services. Carriers need to improve both the front and back ends of their platforms. Right now the technology is still at an early stage, but investment in the next few years will be significant. IMS will enable carriers to provision new services on the fly. Right now developers have demonstrated only limited applications, but IMS is like IP — it has unlimited potential. However, it will take many years for carriers to transition to the IMS platform. Having the ability to provide both wireless and wireless services will also be extremely important for large carriers. The cell phone will be the key for consumers to access other personalized services, and with more and more broadband-enabled cell phones on the market, broadband solution providers need to begin addressing this platform. Universal parental control and security will also be important. In the end, if carriers can make consumers’ lives easier and more comfortable, they’ll make money.
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