Research and Markets has announced the addition of World IP Video Test & Measurement Markets to their offering.

This Frost & Sullivan research service entitled World IP Video Test & Measurement Market provides an overview of the various segments of this market, namely, video analyzers, load testers, hand-held testers, monitoring protocol analyzers, passive monitoring systems, active monitoring systems, and algorithms. It includes analysis of the market based on geographic regions, applications and end-users. In this research service, Frost & Sullivans expert analysts thoroughly examine the following technologies: triple play testing and IPTV services.

Amdocs released results of a survey looking at the communications industry trends in the U.S. and U.K. in 2007. Based on the responses of 200 industry decision makers in the telecom, cable and satellite industries, Amdocs forecasts service providers will significantly increase investment in customer service, network infrastructure and IP-based services, as well as build their digital content offerings.

According to the survey, IPTV, digital TV, video content and VoIP (voice over IP) are expected to be the top products and services for 2007, with spending in network infrastructure for these three areas projected to increase significantly -- by 77 percent, 81 percent, 71 percent and 76 percent, respectively.

Research and Markets has released the new report 2006 Global Broadband Powerlines - Moving into Home Management 3rd Edition. In the report, a key highlight is that there are over 170,000 BPL subscribers worldwide in 2006. Impressive or not? Also from the report, around 100 commercial BPL trials are currently taking place worldwide, with about a third of these under way in the United States, and the large majority originating in Europe. While I do expect the numbers to increase, I am interested to see how BPL fares against competing technologies such as HomePNA.

Research and Markets has released the addition of China Telecom Industry Monthly Review Sept 2006 to their offering.

China telecom industry monthly review is an information service that provides monthly reports targeted at overseas enterprises and investment institutions interested in China's market.

According to The Kelsey Group's annual forecast, global local search* and online classified advertising revenues will grow from $15.7 billion in 2005 to $31.1 billion in 2010. The local search segment will grow from $3.4 billion in 2005 to $13 billion in 2010, with online classifieds growing from $12.3 billion to $18.1 billion during the same period.

According to a recently published report by Synergy Research Group, "Q2 2006 IPTV Router Market Shares," the worldwide IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) Router market increased 66 percent year-over-year and over 16 percent sequentially. The market was driven by Carriers aggressively building out IPTV deployments. Synergy believes IPTV provides a disruptive opportunity for Service Providers to compete directly with Cable TV companies for the delivery of digital television.

Customers are baffled by unclear bills and - as a result - telecoms companies risk lower revenues and increased churn, according to a new report, The Next-Generation Bill: Commercial and Technical Strategies, published by Analysys. The report argues that there is a gap between what telecoms companies believe customers value, and what customers actually value. Service providers put huge amounts of effort into developing new services and competing with each other on price, but much less into ensuring that bills are clear.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of 2006-2007 Europe - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Scandinavia to their offering.

This report covers Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden all early adopters of emerging technologies. Trends and developments in telecommunications, mobile, Internet, broadband, digital TV and converging media including VoIP, VoD and IPTV developments. Subjects include:

• Market and industry analyses, trends and developments
• Facts, figures and statistics
• Industry and regulatory issues
• Research, Marketing, Benchmarking
• Major Players, Revenues, Subscribers, Prepaid
• VoIP, IPTV, VoD, digital TV and DTTV

There are many challenges to overcome before IPTV goes mainstream, says a new report from market research firm Infonetics Research, but many of those challenges are expected to be overcome soon enough for the number of worldwide IPTV subscribers to more than double just about every year from 2005 to 2009, when it will reach 68.9 million subscribers.

New developments in Home Phoneline Networking (HomePNA) technology will give the market a boost, and help it become a viable player in deployment of home video networks, reports In-Stat. Migration is underway from the lower-speed HomePNA 2 to HomePNA 3, and worldwide shipments for HomePNA 3 will exceed 200% growth in 2007, the high-tech market research firm says.

HomePNA 3.0 currently supports speeds of 128 Mbps and guarantees quality of service for video, audio, and VoIP.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Global IPTV Market Analysis (2006-2010) to their offering.

The Global IPTV Market Analysis (2006-2010), report provides extensive research and objective analysis of the Global IPTV Market, its performance and its future prospects. This report helps the clients to analyze the trends and developments in IPTV Market across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific Regions. It also helps in gaining useful insights into the current IPTV market in countries falling under the above-mentioned regions.

In off-topic news, a new survey of US and Canadian consumers found that all consider broadband "the communication service they can least live without," reports In-Stat. The survey breaks households by demographics and reports the same response across all segments. Survey results also give clues about how next-generation consumer applications, such as personal telephone numbers and address books, individual mail boxes, and user profiles, may redefine how we communicate through the personalization of traditional shared services, the high-tech market research firm says.

"Triple-play" service providers today are faced with choices when it comes to distributing content around the customer's premises. A new research brief from ABI Research concludes that while Wi-Fi will play a large role in domestic triple-play distribution scenarios, it is not the whole story: Multimedia over Coax (MoCA), Home Phone Networking Alliance (HPNA 3.0), and HomePlug will collectively see 45 million total connections on STB and residential gateways shipped in 2011.

Now you may be asking yourself, "Femto-what? And who was the marketing genius behind that name?" While I can't answer the second question, I can help shed some light on the first. Femtocells are small cellular access points for indoor residential or commericial environments. The Femtocells are a combination of WiFI and cell and will use your broadband network to help get signals where access would otherwise be limited or not at all.

The access points will allow your phone to offload traffic through your broadband connection and offer cellular carriers the opportunity to address fixed mobile convergence markets with a highly attractive and efficient solution.

According to ABI Research, by 2011 the worldwide market for femtocell products is expected to reach nearly 19 million units per annum. An interesting factor that is often overlooked when considering the femtocell market is that of functionality. Initial offerings are likely to be simple affairs that rely on Ethernet connections to existing ADSL gateways.

Consumers worldwide will increase spending on digital home devices by 32 percent to $159 Billion in 2006, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics' Connected Home Devices service. The report, "Digital Home Devices Global Market Forecast," predicts that digital cameras, DVD players and MP3 players will be the most popular items this year. In terms of revenue, however, LCD and plasma TVs are the star performers.

Consumers around the world will spend nearly $70 Billion on flat panel TVs during 2006, representing 44 percent of total digital home market revenues.

This report identifies a trend towards IP-connected devices as the next important wave in the migration toward digital homes. Fourteen percent of digital home devices sold this year will be IP-enabled, which allows them to access digital media websites on the Internet, or stored on the home network.