HomePNA broadens its HomepPNA 3.1 product availability and telephone company deployments demonstrate how the open standard is maturing in the multimedia home marketplace. With more than 17 HomePNA products on the market, nine large telcos and many smaller telcos have deployed HomePNA to deliver high-speed, triple-play services to subscribers.

Aliant stated that the availability of HomePNA 3.1 products eased the telco’s deployment of IPTV services to customers. “We are pleased that there are now off-the-shelf products available to Aliant that incorporate the HomePNA 3.1 standard to simplify the in-home experience for our end-user customers,” said Gary Lund, chief technical officer for Aliant. Aliant is the leading IPTV service provider in Atlantic Canada and one of the largest regional telcos in North America. “HomePNA allows us to use the existing wires in our customers’ homes to reduce installation times for Aliant TV’s growing customer base without compromising performance.”

The high-speed multimedia home networking standard transforms existing coaxial cables into a whole home network with data rates of up to 320 Megabits per second and guaranteed parameter-based quality of service. By leveraging existing wires, telcos can save time and money on faster installations and customers are not inconvenienced by new wire installations that put holes in their walls. HomePNA’s remote diagnostics and management capabilities can further help drive down installation and support costs.

“New products and new service capabilities designed for IPTV keep the market vital and growing, which is good for telcos, OEMS and component makers, as well as for consumers,” said Steve Hawley, senior IPTV analyst for Multimedia Research Group Inc., and author of MRG's January 2008 report, “IPTV Test Measurement & Monitoring.” “What's more, guaranteed QoS helps operators ensure a competitive level of service quality.”

The next HomePNA Plugfest, scheduled for Feb. 25-29, 2008, in Nevada City, Calif., offers HomePNA members the opportunity to test new products against the HomePNA specification and for interoperability with other HomePNA products. HomePNA plugfests are only open to HomePNA members.