FREE Email Newsletter

Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Actiontec to build screencast boxes supporting Intel WiDi
May 15, 2013 2:19 pm | Products | CommentsActiontec Electronics said it will be the lead developer of a new line of products incorporating Intel wireless WiDi designed to link laptops to TVs. WiDi is already built into Intel’s current Core processors, and the company said it has integrated the technology in its forthcoming fourth-generation Core processors as well.
Cranky broadcasters could get their licenses yanked
May 15, 2013 2:08 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsTV broadcasters who pull their signals off the air might risk forfeiting their spectrum licenses, Sen. Mark Warner this week warned. Fox CEO Chase Carey last month vowed to pull Fox off the air and distribute exclusively through pay TV services if Aereo were allowed to proceed with its current business model.
ABC app to require authentication
May 15, 2013 2:04 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsIn another small victory for MVPDs, ABC said it will make its content available through its newly renamed app only to authenticated pay TV customers, effective July 1. ABC said it has deals in place with Comcast, Cablevision, Cox, Charter, Midcontinent and AT&T.
Another Senator weighs in on cable prices
May 15, 2013 1:57 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsSen. Rockefeller has asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to study the impact of TV station shared services agreements (SSAs) on consumers. The request is a response to complaints that local broadcasters collude in order to keep retrans fees artificially high.
Comcast shores up services in Superstorm Sandy area
May 15, 2013 12:51 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsIn order to better serve its subscribers, Comcast is putting its collective resources into the New Jersey Shore area that was hit by Superstorm Sandy last year. Along the Jersey Shore communities, Comcast has upgraded 144 miles of its infrastructure and plans on offering new services in the area over the coming months.
Denmark’s Stofa re-ups with SeaChange
May 15, 2013 12:43 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsSeaChange International announced that Stofa, the second-largest cable operator in Denmark, has signed a multi-year service and maintenance contract for its Adrenalin VOD services. The new deal built upon the existing relationship between the vendor and cable operator that dated back to 2007.
Report: MoCA brings home networking device market to a boil
May 15, 2013 12:38 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsMoCA (multimedia over coax) has long since emerged as the home networking standard of choice for North American cable operators, but it’s also fueling the growth of the device market. According to a recent report by Infonetics Research, sales of set-top boxes with embedded MoCA technology grew 23 percent in the second half of last year while MoCA adapters increased by 129 percent.
Home network interop standard ratified
May 14, 2013 2:01 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsThe Smart Energy Profile 2 (SEP 2) was developed to enable home energy information, control and management applications, as well as utility communications to devices in and around the home, via wired and wireless connections using IP. Devices might include thermostats, appliances, electric meters, gateways, and vehicles.
Lantiq chipset enables DSL vectoring
May 14, 2013 1:48 pm | by Brian Santo | Products | CommentsThe company said that gateway designs based on the new chipset, the Xway VRX300, can reach data rates of 200 Mbps (two pair bonded) and up to 150 Mbps (vectoring) while supporting an array of home networking features, including integrated Wireless LAN (Wi-Fi), Gigabit Ethernet and VoIP.
Aereo saddles up for Atlanta
May 14, 2013 12:46 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsAereo said this morning that it was rolling its antenna and cloud-based TV service into the Atlanta area on June 17. Following tomorrow’s launch in Boston, Atlanta is the next stop on Aereo’s planned expansion into 22 cities this year.
Google Fiber gains approval in Gladstone, Mo.
May 14, 2013 12:36 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsGladstone, Mo. is the fifth city to garner clearance for Google Fiber’s 1 Gbps service after its city council voted in favor of it Monday night. Google announced the expansion on its blog, but cautioned that it may be a while before Gladstone residents can access the super fast broadband and Google Fiber TV services.
Aurora Networks taps Soleto for director of sales in Canada, Alaska
May 14, 2013 12:30 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsOptical network vendor Aurora Networks announced this morning that it had hired Vince Soleto as its new director of sales in Canada and Alaska. Soleto previously served as regional sales manager for ATX Networks where he was responsible for selling that company’s products in the same areas.
Samsung testing 5G 100 times faster than 4G
May 13, 2013 1:20 pm | by Andrew Berg, Wireless Week | News | CommentsSamsung's new adaptive array transceiver technology will allow data to transmit at higher frequencies than currently possible. Samsung's transceiver transmits data in the millimeter-wave band at a frequency of 28 GHz at a speed of up to 1.056 Gbps to a distance of up to 2 kilometers.
Rural Iowa telco goes FTTH with Adtran
May 13, 2013 1:16 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsMarne Elk Horn Telephone has installed Adtran’s Total Access 5000 broadband platform as it upgrades its network in Southern Iowa from copper plant to fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). In addition to residential and business customers, the service provider is connecting local school districts.
Aereo re-tools pricing plan ahead of Boston launch
May 13, 2013 12:22 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsAhead of its launch in Boston on Wednesday, Internet TV startup Aereo announced today that it that it had restructured its pricing plan for new customers. Aereo said the new "streamlined" plan would be easier for customers to understand.


