China Telecom reported that its Shanghai Telecom subsidiary now has 220 thousand IPTV subscribers and 3 million broadband subscribers. It stated that half the families in Shanghai now have broadband connections. 85 percent of these broadband lines are at 2 Mbps or above and can support IPTV services. The company is planning to upgrade to 16 Mbps (ADSL-2+ I assume) and will be capable of supporting HDTV. It charges about $20 per month for a broadband line.
Broadband and IPTV is continuing to grow rapidly in China. This is clearly a market where there are still large opportunities available for IPTV systems companies.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Shenick Launches IPTV Monitoring Capabilities
Shenick launched its IPTV network monitoring products earlier this month. I just had an interview with them today. Shenick's servicEye products provides the following functions for monitoring IPTV networks:
- servicEye provides monitoring capabilities at the head end of the network on pre and post IPTV encoding stages .
- Active probe functions with full reference video analysis for detailed video analysis. The active probe also provides a multi-application traffic injection capability that enables service providers to emulate and analyze network and application layer traffic.
- servicEye monitors both variable bit rate (VBR) and constant bit rate (CBR) video streams for SD, HD TV and picture-in-picture (PiP) TV with encrypted and non encrypted video payloads.
Shenick's systems are generally used in carrier IPTV labs to test IPTV systems. They are also used to prove out newly installed networks. These monitoring products take the next step and move Shenick into operational networks. Shenick stated that it expects that its products will be used in the headend to monitor video traffic at the source and at the access nodes to monitor video traffic as it enters the access network and is delivered to the viewer.
These kinds of products are key to the success of IPTV services. IPTV Service providers are starting to see churn due to dissatisfaction with video quality. These carriers have to be able to consistently deliver a high level video experience in order achieve the levels of success that they are looking for.
ZTE Interview
I had an interview with ZTE yesterday to discuss its recent announcement that it won the first IPTV AVS deployment in China with China Netcom.
ZTE offers a complete IPTV system but uses video headends from other companies. It uses Envivio, USC, and Shanghai broadcast for AVS encoders. It may use other vendors for set-top boxes or may include content security from Irdeto or Verimatrix in addition to or in place of its own set-top boxes or content security software.
ZTE's China Netcom AVS deployment will start with 30 thousand subscribers. It is in a city of 2 to 3 million people, so there is room for significant growth.
ZTE believes that its AVS capability gives it a significant competitive advantage in the China market. It stated that China Telecom is testing AVS and that over the air broadcasters are starting to use AVS for digital terrestrial services. ZTE cited three advantages for AVS:
ZTE stated that there are currently 1.14 million IPTV subscribers in China. People generally prefer IPTV over cable even though it is about 50 percent higher in price because if its interactive and convenience features.
ZTE said that the lack of consensus between MII the telecom regulator and the broadcast regulator is holding IPTV back today. It stated that China Telecom and China Netcom are made up of a set of independent local subsidiaries. ZTE stated that each of these subsidiaries will make its decisions about which IPTV system to use independently.
Keep in mind that this is ZTE's view of the world. It is clearly a significant factor in the China market even though UTStarcom would probably dispute which is number one. I do believe that AVS will be an important factor in China and one where ZTE seems to have an advantage today.
ZTE offers a complete IPTV system but uses video headends from other companies. It uses Envivio, USC, and Shanghai broadcast for AVS encoders. It may use other vendors for set-top boxes or may include content security from Irdeto or Verimatrix in addition to or in place of its own set-top boxes or content security software.
ZTE's China Netcom AVS deployment will start with 30 thousand subscribers. It is in a city of 2 to 3 million people, so there is room for significant growth.
ZTE believes that its AVS capability gives it a significant competitive advantage in the China market. It stated that China Telecom is testing AVS and that over the air broadcasters are starting to use AVS for digital terrestrial services. ZTE cited three advantages for AVS:
- AVS provides similar quality to MPEG-4 with H.264 at similar bit rates.
- AVS requires less hardware resources than MPEG-4 H.264.
- The intellectual property fees for AVS are less. Specifically AVS does not require the broadcaster to pay royalties as MPEG-4 H.264 does. In addition, the intellectual property fees stay within China.
ZTE stated that there are currently 1.14 million IPTV subscribers in China. People generally prefer IPTV over cable even though it is about 50 percent higher in price because if its interactive and convenience features.
ZTE said that the lack of consensus between MII the telecom regulator and the broadcast regulator is holding IPTV back today. It stated that China Telecom and China Netcom are made up of a set of independent local subsidiaries. ZTE stated that each of these subsidiaries will make its decisions about which IPTV system to use independently.
Keep in mind that this is ZTE's view of the world. It is clearly a significant factor in the China market even though UTStarcom would probably dispute which is number one. I do believe that AVS will be an important factor in China and one where ZTE seems to have an advantage today.
SFR to Acquire Neuf Cegetel
SFR, a mobile service provider, plans to acquire Neuf Cegetel in France. SFR currently owns 40 percent of Neuf Cegetal and is looking to acquire the remaining 60 percent. It appears that the combined company currently has about 600 thousand IPTV subscribers.
The combination of SFR and Neuf Cegetel will be strong competitor to the incumbent, France Telecom. Neuf Cegetel is a major IPTV provider in France and will bring that to the combination.
The combination of SFR and Neuf Cegetel will be strong competitor to the incumbent, France Telecom. Neuf Cegetel is a major IPTV provider in France and will bring that to the combination.
DSL Forum Issues IPTV Standard
The DSL Forum issued Technical Report, TR-135 Data Model for a TR-069 Enabled STB and the amendment of TR-069 in order to expedite IPTV rollouts and improve the way operators manage their IPTV offering.
TR-135 defines the data model for remote management of Digital Television (IPTV or broadcast) functionality on set-top boxes using protocols defined in TR-069 Amendment 2 and TR-106. This report provides the data model for describing set-top box capabilities such as PVR, IGMP, quality of service, as well as providing a means to enable video service performance monitoring. General use cases are also described in the report, including standard data model profiles that would typically be seen while remotely managing a device of this nature.
In TR-135, the Auto-Configuration Server (ACS) may perform some initial configuration of a newly installed set-top box , but its main functions are configuration of set-top box parameters for trouble management and collection of statistics for Quality of Service (QoS)/Quality of Experience (QoE) monitoring.
The goals of TR-135 are:
Together TR-135 and TR-069 Amendment 2 provide the first stage of the IPTV evolution. These reports set the bar high for quality delivery and customer experience, and give the service provider the tools needed to customize and dramatically improve their IPTV offerings, while reducing their support overhead on new IPTV implementations.
For more about these technical reports check out the following link.
This is important work because TR-069 is the fundamental technology that has been developed to provide remote monitoring, management, and support of devices on home networks, including set-top boxes.
TR-135 defines the data model for remote management of Digital Television (IPTV or broadcast) functionality on set-top boxes using protocols defined in TR-069 Amendment 2 and TR-106. This report provides the data model for describing set-top box capabilities such as PVR, IGMP, quality of service, as well as providing a means to enable video service performance monitoring. General use cases are also described in the report, including standard data model profiles that would typically be seen while remotely managing a device of this nature.
In TR-135, the Auto-Configuration Server (ACS) may perform some initial configuration of a newly installed set-top box , but its main functions are configuration of set-top box parameters for trouble management and collection of statistics for Quality of Service (QoS)/Quality of Experience (QoE) monitoring.
The goals of TR-135 are:
- Enable configuration by the ACS of those objects and parameters that are not the responsibility of the IPTV Service Platform.
- Enable operational status monitoring and checking of specific parameters of an STB from an ACS.
- Enable performance monitoring of an arbitrary set of STBs, from one to millions, through estimates of QoS and QoE
- Support various types of set-top boxes, including DTT and IP STBs, with or without PVR and other optional functionality.
- Accommodate set-top box devices that are embedded as part of an Internet Gateway Device (IGD).
- Accommodate set-top box devices that are standalone, i.e. implemented in separate hardware devices.
The trouble management feature of TR-135 means a trained technician may take control of the set-top box remotely to do a number of tasks such as upgrading software and performing diagnostics. This will enable faults to be fixed more quickly and effectively, and negates the needs for many IPTV related truck rolls.
Improved performance management will also allow the automatic monitoring of the set-top box performance. This will enable providers to produce reports on QoS parameters, such as average bit rate, jitter and packet loss ratio; QoE parameters, including including visual quality indicator; and usage statistics, for example, how many set-top boxes are on at a certain time and for how long each of them remains tuned to a certain channel. set-top box QoS/QoE reporting capabilities will allow measurements to be done at the service level, which is of fundamental importance to any operator.
Also approved at the meeting was the update to TR-069, TR-069 Amendment 2, which arose from collaboration and input from the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) organization. The DVB Project required support for Multicast download protocols. Working closely together, TR-069 Amendment 2 was developed and now contains changes that add support for Multicast downloads, including some additional fault codes, and for autonomous file transfers, transfers that were not directly requested by the ACS. These changes define CWMP v1.1, and therefore include some new rules for guaranteeing interoperability between CWMP v1.0, v1.1 and future CWMP versions.Together TR-135 and TR-069 Amendment 2 provide the first stage of the IPTV evolution. These reports set the bar high for quality delivery and customer experience, and give the service provider the tools needed to customize and dramatically improve their IPTV offerings, while reducing their support overhead on new IPTV implementations.
For more about these technical reports check out the following link.
This is important work because TR-069 is the fundamental technology that has been developed to provide remote monitoring, management, and support of devices on home networks, including set-top boxes.
Deutsche Telekom Reaches 100K IPTV Subscribers
Deutsche Telekom has been reported to have 100 thousand IPTV subscriber. This appears to be up 75 thousand from the beginning of 2007.
This is a reasonable increase for the first year of service. This install rate will have to increase significantly in 2008 for the company to build its IPTV business.
This is a reasonable increase for the first year of service. This install rate will have to increase significantly in 2008 for the company to build its IPTV business.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Pace to Acquire Phillips Set-top Box Business
Pace has agreed to acquire Philips' set-top box business for 95 million euros. Philps' set-top box business is based in France and has 335 employees. Pace expects that the combined company will produce about 8.5 million set-top boxes a year and have revenues of more than $1.0 billion in revenue.
With this acquisition, Pace will add BT and Telefonica of Spain as IPTV set-top box customers.
Pace has focused primarily on the cable and satellite set-top box market. Philips will acquire to plum IPTV accounts with the acquisition in BT and Telefonica.
With this acquisition, Pace will add BT and Telefonica of Spain as IPTV set-top box customers.
Pace has focused primarily on the cable and satellite set-top box market. Philips will acquire to plum IPTV accounts with the acquisition in BT and Telefonica.
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