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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
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.
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 | Product Releases | 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.
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.
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.
CableLabs names Lookabaugh as new EVP of R&D
May 13, 2013 12:16 pm | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsCableLabs, the cable industry’s research consortium, announced this morning that it had hired Tom Lookabaugh as its news executive vice president of research and development. Lookabaugh’s 20-year telecommunications career includes stops at ViaSat Communications, Entropic Communications and PolyCiper.
Dish chair dares Softbank to raise bid for Sprint
May 10, 2013 1:20 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsThe chairman of satellite broadcaster Dish Network Corp., which is trying to buy Sprint Nextel Corp., is daring Sprint's other suitor to raise its bid. Dish's Charlie Ergen told investors and reporters Thursday that based on the benefits Japan's Softbank says it would get from buying Sprint, it should be paying a higher price.
YouTube's new pay channels go from campy to kids
May 10, 2013 1:17 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsAlthough the world's largest video site has rented and sold movies and TV shows from major studios since late 2008, YouTube is introducing all-you-can-watch channels that require a monthly fee. The least expensive of the channels will cost 99 cents a month but the average price is around $2.99.
BeIN Sport kicks off streaming service with TWC, BHN
May 10, 2013 11:08 am | by Mike Robuck | News | CommentsAl-Jazeera Sport Media Network’s beIN Sport launched a new streaming service today with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks’ authenticated subscribers. The new service, which is called beIN Sport Play, will feature video content streamed in HD that is available on any broadband-connected PC, mobile device, or smart player
Averna hooks up with Pace on DOCSIS certification
May 10, 2013 10:49 am | by Mike Robuck | Product Releases | CommentsMontreal-based Averna has forged a design-validation partnership with Pace that it said would accelerate customer premise equipment certification (CPE) for cable operators. Using Averna’s DOCSIS Channel Emulator (DCE), the two companies will help service providers gain SCTE-40 certification on various CPE equipment for the cable and broadband industry.
Dish's Q1 disappoints; lowest sub adds in years
May 9, 2013 2:11 pm | by The Associated Press | News | CommentsDish Network fell short of Wall Street expectations. Earnings were down 41 percent, and the company added only 36,000 TV subscribers in its first quarter, the fewest since 2009 when the recession and a dismal housing market hammered consumers.
Starz extends app to Android devices
May 9, 2013 2:06 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsStarz has made its TV everywhere app available on Android handsets and tablets, including Nook HD, Nook HD+, and the Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10. Also, 3G/4G cellular access has been added to the service feature, giving Play users an additional connectivity option in addition to Wi-Fi.
Cablevision swings to loss; spending up on CPE
May 9, 2013 1:52 pm | by Brian Santo | News | CommentsCablevision Systems swung to a first quarter loss, due in part to declining revenues in its cable TV unit. The company added a modest number of revenue generating units (RGUs), and increased average revenue per user (ARPU) by a little more than 1 percent, to $156.34.
