France Telecom buys Ya.com in Spain

France Telecom has bought the competitive broadband carrier Ya.com from Deutsche Telekom. This adds 400 thousand broadband subscribers to Orange Spain giving it a total a total of 1.1 million subscribers. This makes it number two in Spain after Telefonica with 4 million broadband subscribers. Ya.com does offer IPTV services based on Microsoft software.

This is the second foreign competitive carrier that Deutsche Telekom has sold in the last couple of months. It also sold its Club Internet subsidiary to Neuf Cegetel.

I expect that Orange will move Ya.com subscribers off of the Microsoft software.

Verizon to use VDSL in MDUs

Verizon will be using Westell VDSL DSLAMs to distribute its FTTP FiOS service in Multiple Dwelling Units (MDUs). Westell was not able to provide any details on this deal.

Using VDSL to distribute fiber broadband services in MDUs is common. VDSL will operate over existing telephone wires at speeds approaching 100 Mbps due to the short length of these in house copper links.

Thanks to Ohad Hammer, a regular reader, for passing this article on.

China Telcos Wants IPTV Deregulation

China Telecom and China Netcom called for the deregulation of the IPTV market in China. They stated that there is a worldwide trend to deregulate IPTV; however, they stated that it is not happening in China. For example, regulators have only allowed China Telecom to offer IPTV commercial services in only six cities.
The two firms hope that IPTV can provide them with a major source of broadband revenue, but broadcasting authorities are concerned that IPTV could hurt cable TV operators. In December 2005, the broadcasting authorities in Quanzhou, in East China's Fujian Province, ordered the closure of an IPTV service jointly run by China Telecom and the Shanghai Media Group, despite the fact that the Shanghai Media Group had been granted a license to operate the service by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

A new law is being developed to address this issue but is not expected to be passed before March 2008.

China Telecom has 210,000 IPTV subscribers with 150,000 in Shanghai. China Netcom has more than 140,000 IPTV subscribers.

The short term prospects for IPTV in China are cloudy at best. There is still a lot of uncertainty that is based on how the government will sort out the conflict between the cable and the telephone companies. It is likely that this will be sorted out in the next year or two, but it is wise to take a conservative approach for now.

Swisscom IPTV Profitable in 2009

Swisscom does not expect to see profits from its Bluewin IPTV service over the next two years. Swisscom would need 200,000 to 250,000 customers for Bluewin TV to yield profits and expects to get there by the end of 2009.

The service has been installed in 30,000 to 40,000 households. Swisscom is currently adding about 1,000 to 2,000 households every week.

Swisscom continues to do well. I think that reaching profitability in three years for such a complex service is a very positive sign.

New Accenture IPTV Survey

Accenture has just released its IPTV Monitor - Issue 4, which reviews that global status of IPTV. It also gives the results from surveys. One interesting result is that nearly half of the respondents to one survey felt that targeted advertising will become an important revenue source from IPTV services. Another survey found that more than one third of the service providers surveyed believe that competition from cable, satellite, and digital terrestrial is the single biggest obstacle to IPTV adoption.

Like its other IPTV Monitor's, Issue 4 is well worth downloading and reviewing. Download the earlier issues as well, if you have not seen them.

U.S. FCC Addresses MDUs

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that competitive video providers must have access to the inside wiring in multiple dwelling units (MDUs) at the terminal block in order to provide video services. It also ruled that wiring behind sheet rock is considered to be inaccessible as is wiring behind brick or cinder block. Consequently, competitive video providers should not be forced to cut into sheet rock to provide service.

This ruling will help ATT and Verizon to offer their IPTV services in MDUs where the cable companies are already established. This is particularly important t0 Verizon that serves a large number of MDUs in New York City and other large Eastern cities.

ATT Hits 30,000 IPTV Subscribers

Randall Stephenson, AT&T COO and CEO designate, said that ATT has 30 thousand IPTV subscribers for its U-verse service. It now offers the service in 20 markets and and is currently adding 500 subscribers per day.

ATT is adding subscribers on a consistent basis since its last announcement on April 18 when it said it had 18 thousand U-verse subscribers. If you are an (anal)yst like me, you will calculate that this is an average rate of about 480 new subscribers per day. This is consistent with Stephenson's announcement.

Based on this rate, ATT should finish the year with over 100 thousand U-verse subscribers. This number should increase significantly as the number of markets where the service is offered increases.