Advanced Television

Broadband

Motorola Mobility offers BelAir WiFi

Motorola Mobility has struck a deal with BelAir Networks to deliver its comprehensive WiFi portfolio to cable operators worldwide. This new relationship combines Motorola’s portfolio of cable video and broadband solutions and customer support organisation with BelAir’s WiFi solutions for service providers, and supports cable operators’ needs to promote competitive differentiation, improve customer retention and […]

May 2, 2011Colin Mann @ ANGA Cable

Digital return module for Germany’s BK fibre nodes

Optical transport solution provider Aurora Networks has unveiled its Digital Return module for the BK (Broadband Kommunications) Fibre Node that will enable cable operators in Germany, and neighbouring countries, to better meet bandwidth requirements driven by high-demand services. Specifically customised for the region’s installed base, Aurora Networks’ Digital Return module is the first digital return […]

May 2, 2011Colin Mann @ ANGA Cable

KPN acquires Caiway

Incumbent Dutch telco Royal KPN NV (KPN) is to acquire Dutch cable MSO Caiway from its current shareholders, Rabo Bouwfonds’ Communication Infrastructure Fund (CIF) and Caiway’s management, for an undisclosed sum. Caiway provides television, broadband and telephony services in several municipalities in the Netherlands through the cable and fibre infrastructures of CIF and a number […]

May 2, 2011By Colin Mann

‘Cord Cutting is a warning that cable should heed’

US Cable operators saw over two million video customers evaporate from their rolls in 2010, whereas Telco TV and Satellite actually gained customers over the same period—more than compensating for Cable’s losses and netting a modest 273,000 new subscribers for Pay TV overall. A new report by Strategy Analytics suggests that the US Cable industry […]

April 28, 2011

Telcos target OTT traffic

Leading European telecoms companies want to levy significant charges on Google and other online content providers through an overhaul of the regime governing how data travel over the Internet, reports the Financial Times. The telcos complain that they are contending with an explosion of data on their networks, much of which comes from US sites […]

April 27, 2011By Colin Mann

Cisco exec: STBs could disappear

A senior Cisco executive has predicted that set-top boxes as we know them today could almost disappear as cable migrates to IP video, and services are increasingly driven by new, cloud-based infrastructures that support new screens such as Apple ‘s iPad. “Set-tops are clearly moving to the point where they are either a piece of […]

April 27, 2011By Colin Mann

Kabel Noord selects Agama solution

Agama Technologies, the DTV quality assurance expert, has revealed that the Dutch cable operator Kabel Noord has deployed a cutting edge Agama head-end video monitoring solution for its digital cable TV service, all to ensure high level of TV service quality and customer satisfaction. The deployed solution includes the Agama Analyzer H-E, with support for […]

April 27, 2011

YouTube will target iTunes

Googles’s YouTube is about to launch a pay VoD service streaming mainstream movies to compete with iTunes. The service could start as early as next week according to Hollywood insider newsletter The Wrap. Major studios including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Universal have made deals for the new service, as have independent studios, including […]

April 26, 2011

Cord cutting no big deal for cable…

IMS Research goes against the grain on OTT and cord cutting for cable MSOs. It is forecasting that digital cable TV subscribers in the US will increase by 7.8 million from the end of 2010 to the end of 2015, even as the platform as a whole is forecast to drop by 2.75 million subscribers […]

April 26, 2011

Kenya to launch DStv rival

Wananchi Group, a leading local triple-play telco, is to launch a satellite-based DTH pay-TV for Kenyan viewers. ‘Zuku’ will launch in May and directly challenge South Africa’s DStv. Zuku already offers up to 91 channels of cable TV to its – mostly – Nairobi subscribers. Wananchi has as its group chairman Mark Schneider, well known […]

April 26, 2011By Chris Forrester