In-home media streaming is on the up

US broadband homes are increasingly choosing to place their router in the living room rather than home office in order to better serve their connected video devices, according to The Diffusion Group.

Over four in five US broadband households now have home networks installed – up a few percentage points from 2011 – with over a third of routers now found in ‘primary living spaces’ – nearly twice the number found in spaces dedicated to home offices.

Michael Greeson, founding partner of The Diffusion Group, observes that just a few years ago, network use was dominated by data-centric activities (email, messaging, productivity applications, etc.), with few consumers actually using their home networks to access and share digital media.

“Today, however, 62 per cent of networked households are using their network to stream digital media,” adds Greeson.

TDG believes that both router placement and primary use are highly correlated with age: the younger the head-of-household, the more likely it is that the router is located in the primary living space, and that the network is used to stream digital media.

According to TDG’s data, nearly eight in ten Millennials (aged 18 to 34 years old) use their home networks to stream media, a rate that also declines as age increases.

The submarine network extends around the Caribbean

UK-based Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) on Tuesday entered into a strategic alliance with the Caribbean’s Columbus Networks, to form a joint venture to provide wholesale bandwidth capacity in the Caribbean and Americas Region.

The venture will be called CNL-CWC Networks and in addition, CWC Wholesale Solutions, a subsidiary of CWC has entered into a separate services agreement with Columbus Networks under which Columbus will provide certain operation and monitoring services to the firm.

Between them, CWC and Columbus operate sub-sea cable networks in the Caribbean and Central American region of approximately 42,000 kilometres with connectivity to 42 countries. The joint venture company will serve as the sales agent of both for international wholesale capacity but Columbus will be the managing partner with a 72.5 per cent share. CWC Wholesale Solutions will provide support and management resources.

The companies said that demand for data capacity is growing rapidly in the Caribbean and Americas region, driven by the increasing availability of, and consumer demand for, mobile data and fixed broadband services. The interconnected networks will enable more self-healing fibre optic rings with a future planned migration to a fully meshed network environment that will significantly improve the region’s access to international capacity and better meet the increasing demands for reliability and performance, the companies said.

” In the coming months, customers will begin to enjoy much greater route choice, improved reliability and higher performance as the joint venture rolls out innovative, new service offerings spanning clear channel services, IP transit, carrier Ethernet and carrier MPLS,” said Paul Scott, president of Columbus Networks.

The Broadband World Forum is taking place on the 22nd – 24th October 2013 at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, Amsterdam. Click here to pre-register for the event.

Sprint Nextel has blamed delays by equipment vendors stifling the rollout of its Network Vision project

US operator Sprint Nextel has blamed delays caused by equipment vendors for stifling the rollout of its Network Vision project, in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, the operator said that it had been forced to revise its plans to bring 12,000 multi-mode base stations on-air by the end of 2012, pushing the deadline back to 1Q13.

Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Samsung all supply equipment to Sprint as part of its Network Vision project.

“The deployment of multi-mode technology is project managed by Sprint but dependent upon three primary OEMs, each of which has responsibility for a geographical territory across the United States,” Sprint explained in the filing.

“We have recently experienced delays with vendor execution, backhaul connectivity delays, shortages in equipment such as fiber cable and antennas, as well as other regulatory and environmental issues.”

The operator added that the delays have caused an increase in depreciation to existing Nextel and Sprint assets.

Sprint said it expects to recover from the delays and is still forecasting to have the majority of its sites on-air by the end of 2013. Its Network Vision LTE network deployment is now expected to be completed by the middle of 2014.

The LTE North America conference is taking place on the 21st-22nd November 2013, in Dallas, Texas, USA. Click here NOW to download a brochure for the event.

Rogerio Takayanagi is CEO of TIM Fiber, Brasil

Rogerio Takayanagi, CEO of TIM Fiber, Brazil, is speaking on Day One of the Broadband LATAM conference taking place on 2-3 July 2013 at the Grand Hyatt, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ahead of the show we speak to him about how Brazil’s broadband infrastructure is developing at a pace and how TIM Brasil is readying itself for the rapid expansion of demand for data in the country in time for the World Cup and Olympics.

The world’s eyes will be on Brazil in time for the upcoming World Cup and Olympics. What are you doing to get your networks ready for the data onslaught?

TIM has been constantly investing in its network improvement. Intelig’s acquisition in 2009 and AES’ in 2011 gave us more than 20,000Km of fibre in Brazilian territory, generating a network with more strength and resilience and a company with clear priorities. By the end of 2015 we’ll have near 80 per cent of the urban population covered with 3G, in addition to the LTE service we will launch in 2013, covering the 12 World Cup cities. The total amount invested in infrastructure will be above BRL10bn in the next two years. I believe that despite the data peak, TIM customer’s and our visitors will have a great experience during the events.

Brazil has not enjoyed the fastest broadband speeds up to now. How are you going about improving this and what technologies are you currently rolling out?

Despite the low average speed in Brazil, the market for higher speed is growing, and we’re playing an important role on this process. Our value proposition with Live TIM is centred exactly on delivering an ultra-broadband experience, offering 35Mb as the entrance speed.

We have an innovative and disruptive network architecture (FTTC), which is a hybrid solution between fibre and VDSL, instead of mainstream FTTH. It drives expansion complexity down and has a relatively low CAPEX. This is a central pillar in Live TIM’s strategy, as it not only optimises the deployment process but also home passed costs.

How are you going about making broadband more affordable for the general population?

We can offer more speed for less due to our network architecture (FTTC), which enables a high quality product at a very competitive price. Our offer is unique in the market, as we have ultra-broadband solo, with no bundles, such as Pay TV or fixed-line and no fidelity contract or fines. This is a major difference in a market dominated by bundling offers.

Regarding our geographic expansion, in 2012 we covered most areas with high ‘A/B classes’ concentration. In 2013 we have entered Class C and in 2014 we plan to focus on Class C concentration areas of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

What are your plans around 4G?

We plan to launch the service this year in six cities hosting the Confederations Cup, and over the course of the year, all the 12 cities of the FIFA World Cup 2014, sticking to Anatel’s (The Brazilian Agency of Telecommunications) minimum coverage requirements.

How important is wifi offload to your rollout plans?

Wi-Fi offloading has gained significant relevance, delivering great cost and performance benefits to operators, as well as superior customer experience. We believe wifi offload for 3G is essential as data traffic and users increase, driving convenience and faster speeds usage, that’s why it’s part of TIM group strategy to improve customer satisfaction. It is a customer driven strategy.

Many of the larger operators have either deployed their own wifi hotspots or established partnerships with wifi access wholesalers, and hybrid networks are an important wave of the next years. So TIM Fiber rollout is part of this strategy, as our network helps developing spots in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro metropolitan areas. It maximizes TIM investments as the infrastructure is used both for mobile and broadband services.

What opportunities do the new cloud services provide for operators?

With SME cloud services telcos have been in a tricky position due to strong competition from IT service providers, OTTs and vendors. However, cloud services and ultra-broadband bandwidth are highly related and can help telcos to be more competitive, as it enables operators to offer a complete solution to its customers in all segments through cloud aggregation.

The operators could and should play a key role in offering end-to-end cloud solutions to the business market, as SaaS services to connected companies. On the other hand, in the consumer segment, cloud gaming and cloud storage are upcoming services experiencing a burst of growth.

What impact will improved broadband and mobile speeds have on the economy?

The impacts are difficult to measure, but easy to sense. More speed leads to a large number of possibilities and potential uses, and this boosts the economy. New services based on the faster infrastructure, new applications and new systems generate more employment that in turn generates fresh demands for services. It is a cyclical movement that benefits everyone.

What is the most exciting development you expect to see in broadband over the next 12 months?

The most exciting development will be the experience of video and the development of new video services.  There’s already a strong demand for online video, and OTT is becoming an attractive option for customers, so we believe that HD streaming of videos and films are just a small sample of the huge opportunity that will come from this segment. Additionally, operators have the chance to integrate bandwidth to content delivery and this advantage will then guide the creation of new products that will disrupt the market.

Telefonica has sold 40 per cent of its assets in four Central American markets to family-owned Latin American business group CMI

Spanish operator group Telefonica has sold 40 per cent of its assets in four Central American markets to family-owned Latin American business group CMI for $500m. Telefonica’s operations in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama will be merged into a new joint venture with CMI. The transaction values the businesses at 6.5 times their 2012 EBITDA, according to the group.

The move may come as a surprise to many given that in November 2012, Telefónica saw its revenue from Latin America overtake the revenue generated in Europe for the first time in the firm’s history. Telefónica said the move is part of its “policy of proactive management of its asset portfolio” and will “increase the company’s financial flexibility”. According to research firm Ovum, Telefonica has a higher debt burden compared to its peers, amassed partly in trying to build the Latin American footprint.

“Telefonica is fixated on reducing its debt at the moment and has been for the past couple of years,” commented Jeremy Green principal analyst in Ovum’s telco strategy practice. “This is why it sold off O2 UK’s fixed line business and other business units.”

Central America is politically and economically a stable region, by Telefonica’s own admission. Its business in Europe on the other hand is not showing such stability, but according to Green, this move is not a sign that Telefonica is giving up on Latin America.

“Telefonica has been streamlining its operations for simplification,” he said. “I’d imagine they’re looking to hang on to the biggest and most important businesses in Latin America and the businesses that take up more mind share than they are worth, Telefonica can afford to sell.”

Green added that Telefonica’s shares are currently valued highly, so it has attracted a lot of money for its assets.

“CMI does everything from fast food, real estate, renewable energy and finance. It has a retail presence and I’m sure is fairly well connected politically. So Telefonica is not selling to a rival that will directly compete with it. It has basically offloaded a portion of a profitable business at a good price.”

AT&T has announced pricing details for its M2M home security and automation Digital Life offering

US operator AT&T has announced pricing details for its M2M home security and automation Digital Life offering. Customers can choose from two base plans: Simple Security, a basic home security package; or Smart Security which includes enhanced security features and the option to add home automation.

The Simple Security package will be priced at $149.99 for equipment and installation, plus a monthly charge of $29.99. The package includes 24/7 home monitoring, 24-hour battery backup, a wireless keypad, keychain remote, recessed sensors and an indoor siren.

The Smart Security package includes all of the services in the basic package, plus a choice of three of the following features: motion sensor, carbon monoxide sensor, glass break sensor, smoke sensor or takeover kit. The Smart Security package begins at $249.99 for equipment and installation plus $39.99 per month.

Customers who select Smart Security can also upgrade their package to add a camera, allowing customers to view live video from inside and outside of the home for an additional $9.99 a month plus equipment and installation costs. An Energy Package to control appliances, lighting and thermostats is available for an additional $4.99 a month plus equipment and installation. The Door Package, which allows a pet sitter or repairman into your home remotely with automated door locks, and a Water Detection Package to detect water leaks are each available for an additional $4.99 a month plus equipment and installation. And a Water Control Package, which detects leaks and shuts off water at the main water source will cost an additional $9.99 a month plus equipment and installation.

AT&T has not disclosed the value of its investment in Digital Life, but did reveal the firm acquired and internally developed its own management platform for the security service. It has built its own monitoring centres and dedicated support facilities and will source third party providers trained to install domestic equipment.

The launch of Digital Life comes a month later than scheduled, as AT&T had planned to make the offering available to consumers in March 2013. The offering will later be expanded into areas such as utility management, the firm said and according to Kevin Peterson, senior vice president for the Digital Life division, AT&T aims to “disrupt and remake the security industry.”

Glenn Booth, Alcatel-Lucent

We speak to Glenn Booth, VP of wireless portfolio & strategy at Alcatel-Lucent, about winning last year’s Broadband InfoVision Award for ‘Best Broadband Access – Wireless’ for the lightRadio solutions portfolio.

This year’s Broadband InfoVision Awards will take place in Amsterdam on October 23rd. For more information and to register, please visit: www.broadbandinfovisionawards.com

Can you bring us up to speed on where development of the lightRadio portfolio is now?

We are thrilled with the progress we have made with lightRadio and its three pillars of LTE, small cells and cloud architecture.

In terms of the progress that we have made in the market, the LTE lightRadio solution is shipping today, we have 38 LTE wins around the world, so a lot of these are service providers that are leading the market in LTE, including the biggest networks in the world like Verizon and AT&T.

We have customers in Europe who are starting to move more aggressively, including Orange, and we have really a dominant position with the two biggest builds that will happen in 2013 for LTE with Sprint and China Mobile.

So it’s been an exciting time for us, we’ve got excellent traction with our lightRadio small cells portfolio as well, which has won more than 50 customers to date, and a lot of those are with new customers, so we are seeing that adoption rate continue to steadily increase.

That adoption rate is being fuelled by the lightRadio product portfolio, on which we have driven a number of new products to market in the past 12 months, such as baseband products, wideband radios, an IP management system.

On small cells we have continued to add new band classes, new form factors, from enterprise and our metro portfolio in particular.

In what ways has winning the Broadband InfoVision award helped raise lightRadio’s profile?

It’s been important for us, third-party validation of lightRadio has really been very good across the industry.

We have won more than 20 industry awards in the short time since we launched lightRadio, and winning the Broadband InfoVision Award is really an honour.

We take it as a strong proof point recognising that the innovative vision that we have for the mobile broadband market is actually being realised in our product deliveries and in our market traction.

This really reinforces our image and our identity in the marketplace as an innovator in mobile broadband.

What has been the most surprising feedback you have had from winning the award?

The feedback has been reassurance from our customers that we’re innovating and delivering our products. We went out with a big vision 18 months ago with lightRadio, and are seeing this really now as a real proof point that we have delivered against that vision.

That’s been very important for us and it’s reinforced the idea that we have for the market that as we develop the next generation of infrastructure with LTE and small cells, it gives operators this unique ability to drive multimedia services that they can use to win in their markets and really differentiate against their competition.

So that feedback loop has been very positive for us as a result of the awards.

How do you plan to further improve the portfolio this year?

If you look at the strength that we’ve had, it’s been really focused on having success with the first movers and those that want to win in their markets by deploying next-generation broadband – and that’s at the heart of lightRadio.

So that’s high-speed data, high capacity for LTE and for small cells, and it’s those that want to deploy in a decisive manner, which means a complete deployment versus a complement to what they already have in their network.

So if you take that into account for our lightRadio portfolio plans, we will be dramatically adding capacity to our new BBUs, so that we can support the data explosion and success that our biggest customers have had with LTE.

We will also have a strong emphasis in terms of broadcast and carrier aggregation, and also voice over LTE, which we believe is going to be tremendously important to carriers that are driving this new world of voice and data blended together.

We will continue to drive the completion of our small cells lightRadio portfolio so that we can augment this capacity, there is an almost infinite number of bands that we are getting demand for from our customers, as well as different form factors.

So we will be increasing the completeness of our portfolio and using that as a complement of the macro portion of lighRadio through the remainder of 2013.

The LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, is taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Click here to download a brochure for the event.

1 Gbps broadband is coming to Provo, Utah – probably

Google has revealed plans to brings its super-fast broadband project ‘Google Fiber’ to the city of Provo, Utah, by acquiring the city’s existing fibre network for a nominal fee of $1.

The agreement with Provo city council (owner of the existing iProvo network) is not complete yet however.

It is dependent on a vote by the city council scheduled for today (Tuesday 23rd April), although reports suggest that the city council is overwhelmingly in favour of the deal.

If it goes ahead, Google plans to commence network upgrades immediately, and will start offering its free 5 Mbps service to every home connected to the iProvo network in late 2013.

The search giant plans to roll out its high-speed 1Gbps service and IPTV service ‘Google Fiber TV’ at a later date.

Ricardo Sanfelice, marketing and products executive director for GVT, Brazil

Ricardo Sanfelice, marketing and products executive director for GVT Brazil, is speaking on Day One of the Broadband LATAM 2013 conference, taking place on 2-3 July 2013 at the Grand Hyatt, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Ahead of the show we find out why fibre is such an important focus for the Brazilian telco.

FTTH is clearly the optimal solution performance wise, but is clearly cost prohibitive. Does is make sense to invest in FTTH?

Large companies, such as GVT, have to invest in fibre to achieve a greater geographical footprint. Spreading to new areas using FTTH makes sense as the CAPEX may not be that different from laying the last mile with copper. There are also benefits from a lower OPEX due to lower maintenance cost on the network. Helpfully, GVT’s network architecture has a shorter last mile due as its architecture is based on FTTN (Fibre to the Node), where the fibre reaches the street cabinet near the customer premises. Therefore, the investment needed to migrate from copper to fibre is more affordable for companies such as GVT in comparison to the incumbents. While for GVT the last mile is an average of 400 metres, the incumbents have areas where they would need to replace up to 5km of copper.

What can be done to lower the cost of fibre roll-outs to make them more affordable?

A fibre-based solution is future proof and guarantees a virtually unlimited speed increase for converged services. GVT offers 150Mbps speed in FTTH fibre dedicated to the customer’s home, but it is still an expensive service for the majority of the population. However, GVT’s network topology, consisting of FTTH with GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network), including the CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) with integrated optical port, is already the same price as copper solutions. In order to keep control of costs, the company has to choose a suitable 2.5Gbps GPON project with predefined levels of splitters, a careful analysis of potential customers in the area and cost-effective CPE.

How far can copper-based technology be taken performance wise?

Copper and fiber will coexist for many years because it is already possible to reach 100Mbps with copper. But the offer of converged services at very high speeds, such as 300Mbps and IPTV, increases the need for fibre and therefore GVT is prioritising fibre for new investments in network expansion. 

What opportunities do cloud services provide for operators?

Cloud gaming is one of the services with the most potential for retail customers, enabling high quality entertainment for the customer at a low price. Another opportunity in Latin America is the lack of locally operating cloud storage services available and telcos have the infrastructure to provide this for their customers. Additionally, customers tend to use the higher speeds available at home to create their personal clouds, making their content accessible everywhere. Telcos could enhance this through their equipment that is already present in homes. In the corporate market, GVT aims to strengthen its reputation as an IT-based cloud managed service provider that can deliver virtual servers, email services, web hosting and more.

What is the most exciting developments you expect to see in broadband over the next 12 months?

The last few years showed a huge growth in connected devices (i.e. smartphones, tablets). We are engaged in providing access to fast wifi hotspots to improve the internet experience outside the home. This is not just a service for the customer, but is also an opportunity for fixed and mobile operators, where the traffic from mobile can be offloaded to fixed line telcos, unburdening mobile network cells. In the connected home, the fixed broadband connection will become increasingly important as the centre of the converged experience.

Dish Network has made a $25.5bn offer to merge with Sprint

Fresh from its attempt to scupper a potential deal between US operator Sprint Nextel and Wimax operator Clearwire, Dish Network is now going right for the source with a $25.5bn offer to merge with Sprint.

Sprint’s Clearwire deal is looking close to completion. Clearwire recently urged investors to vote in favour of the offer in a proxy statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, warning that failure to close a deal may result in financial restructuring and bankruptcy.

It has not proven enough to thwart satellite player Dish’s ambitions though, as the firm now aims to foil Japanese carrier Softbank’s attempt to acquire a 70 per cent stake in Sprint Nextel for $20.1bn. Dish claims its own $25.5bn proposal represents superior value to Sprint shareholders. The firm is offering Sprint shareholders $7.00 per share; $4.76 per share in cash and 0.05953 Dish shares per Sprint share, based upon Dish’s closing share price on Friday, April 12, 2013.

The cash portion of Dish’s proposal represents an 18 per cent premium over the $4.03 per share implied by SoftBank’s proposal, which it made in October 2012, according to Dish.

Dish also said that its offer would give Sprint shareholders 32 per cent ownership in the combined Dish/Sprint entity. SoftBank is offering shareholders just 30 per cent interest in Sprint alone. According to Dish Network, its offer represents a 13 per cent premium to the value of the existing SoftBank proposal.

“Sprint shareholders will benefit from a higher price with more cash while also creating the opportunity to participate more meaningfully in a combined Dish/Sprint with a significantly-enhanced strategic position and substantial synergies that are not attainable through the pending SoftBank proposal,” said Charlie Ergen, chairman of Dish Network.

“A transformative Dish/Sprint merger will create the only company that can offer customers a convenient, fully-integrated, nationwide bundle of in- and out-of-home video, broadband and voice services. Additionally, the combined national footprints and scale will allow Dish/Sprint to bring improved broadband services to millions of homes with inferior or no access to competitive broadband services.”

Both Sprint and Softbank’s board had approved the transaction in October, and the companies had said they expect the transaction to close in mid-2013. Under the terms drawn up by the two firms Sprint must pay Softbank $600m if the merger does not close because Sprint accepts a superior offer by a third party.