Broadband Briefs for 2/04/10
• Ligos to demo ETV Mosaic at Winter Conference
By Mike Robuck
Interactive TV vendor Ligos will be showing off its ETV Mosaic at next week’s CableLabs Winter Conference in Denver.
Ligos said its ETV Mosaic is a visual EBIF authoring and playout system that provides tools to create and deliver interactive content to subscribers and is aimed at multichannel operators, content owners and solution providers that are using CableLabs’ EBIF specification for interactive applications.
Using ETV Mosaic, content developers can build and deploy applications for video-rich program guides, polling applications, commerce, advanced advertising, RFI, VOD and premium channel promotion, customer care and billing, and TV Everywhere initiatives. Ligos will be showing a number of these interactive applications at the Denver conference next week.
• SCTE Canadian Summit lands Switzer keynote
By CED staff
The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers announced that Israel “Sruki” Switzer will deliver the keynote address at the upcoming SCTE Canadian Summit 2010, set for March 9-10 in Toronto.
Switzer, regarded as one of the most knowledgeable cable technology engineers in Canada.
The SCTE Canadian Summit is geared toward Canadian engineering professionals who want to focus on the exchange of technical information for today and tomorrow, and the Summit examines the impact of integrating new technologies into existing cable infrastructures, the SCTE said.
• Md. PSC approves settlement offer with Verizon
By The Associated Press
BALTIMORE (AP) – The Public Service Commission has approved a settlement offer with Maryland's largest telephone company over rates and delays in restoring service. Verizon has 20 days to decide whether to accept the commission's offer.
The settlement links price increases to improvements in service. Verizon would not be able to raise prices on residential basic local telephone service until it demonstrates quality improvements.
It also would require the company to restore service to 80 percent of its residential customers within 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays.
• Motorola to supply GPON to Okla. telco
By Brian Santo
Medicine Park Telephone is going to install a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network based on Motorola’s gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technology, according to the vendor.
Motorola is helping Medicine Park, a phone and broadband provider in Oklahome, upgrade data speeds while also introducing new video services that will make use of Motorola’s standard RF set-tops. The company said Medicine Park’s network will have a “fully-integrated RF return path for video delivery.”
Motorola’s GPON portfolio includes the Motorola AXS2200 optical line terminal (OLT), the Motorola ONT1400GT single-family optical network terminal (ONT) and the Motorola ONT6000 for multi-dwelling units. Motorola’s FTTP solutions inherently support SCTE-51 – or Motorola RF return path functionality – for easy integration with Motorola video headend and RF set-top solutions.