The future of television is arriving for consumers in parts of the greater Richmond area as Verizon introduces FiOS TV over its revolutionary fiber-optic network.

Verizon delivers FiOS TV over the nation's largest digital, all-fiber network. Only this network has earned the certification of the independent Fiber to the Home Council for providing fiber all the way to customers' homes.

Cavalier Telephone and TV and Talk America announced the closing of their merger on schedule as planned. At the shareholders meeting held today, Talk America shareholders overwhelmingly approved the $8.10 per share cash offer by Cavalier with 99% of the votes cast in favor of the deal. Cavalier consummated the merger shortly thereafter.

Dolby Laboratories, Inc. announced that T-Home, the new IPTV service from Deutsche Telekom's T-Com division, will be broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. The set-top box for the service, the Media Receiver X 300T, is also compatible with Dolby Digital Plus.

T-Com customers in Germany subscribing to the new T-Home service will have access to over 125 free and pay-TV channels and an extensive choice of entertainment delivered in Dolby Digital, including Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound when available. In addition, customers will enjoy high-speed Internet access.

Verimatrix, setting the standard in content security technologies that enhance the value of pay-TV networks, announced that Falcon Broadband has selected the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) to provide digital video content security over the carrier’s IP network. Falcon plans on launching the new IPTV service in Q2 2007 when it has completed its dedicated fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) IP network in the Colorado marketplace.

Alcatel-Lucent announced that Hawaiian Telcom, the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) in Hawaii, has selected Alcatel-Lucent's Triple Play Service Delivery Architecture as the blueprint for network transformation that will enable the delivery of new and innovative consumer and enterprise service offerings.

Occam Networks Inc., a leading supplier of innovative Ethernet and IP-based loop carrier equipment to telecommunications companies, announced that ten local telcos in Canada’s Ontario province have selected Occam Network’s BLC 6000 solution to upgrade their networks. Occam has seen tremendous success in Ontario over the last 18 months, and is now serving two-thirds of its independent telcos.

Interactive production company Two Way TV has struck a deal with ITV that will see the company launching a range of red button services around ITV's programming. Two Way TV has been running red button services behind The X Factor and I'm A Celebrity Get Me… Out Of Here! for the broadcaster and the new deal will see many more of ITV's interactive services - already enjoyed by satellite subscribers - becoming available on UK cable.

Online sales of TV shows, movies and other prerecorded video will become a billion-dollar business in 2007, predicts a new report from technology research firm Strategy Analytics. This report, "The Video Store Goes Virtual: The Global Outlook for Online Video Sales," predicts that while video download sales made through Apple's iTunes store and other sources will total just $298 million this year, by the end of 2007 the market will grow to $1.5 billion. By 2010, global revenue from online video sales, rentals and subscriptions will surge to $5.9 billion, and account for eight percent of total home video industry revenues.

Free (Iliad Group), an IPTV service provider in France, is to roll out the first and largest optical fiber network in France based on the Cisco Internet Protocol Next Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture and using Cisco Ethernet fiber-to-the-home (E-FTTH) technology.

According to Free's plan, the first phase of the fiber project will connect more than 2 million people in the city of Paris via the largest fiber network in Europe. Free announced that residents will have access to broadband speeds that could exceed 50 megabits per second for 29.99 euros per month, and benefit from advanced services such as high-definition IPTV, video on demand, multimedia communication and Web 2.0 services.

Research and Markets has added of 2006-2007 Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband in Europe Report Italy and Malta to their offering.

This report covers Italy and Malta, together representing one of the largest and most influential telecom markets in Europe, as well as one of the smallest yet technologically proficient. Trends and developments in telecommunications, mobile, Internet, broadband, digital TV and converging media including VoIP, VoD and IPTV developments.

Motive Inc. has announced its Home Device Manager (HDM) product is now interoperable with 33 customer premises equipment (CPE) vendors, including IPTV set-tops from Motorola, Inc. The support for these additional CPE devices demonstrates how Motive can help service providers deliver seamless triple-play services including voice, high-speed Internet and television services.

A new ABI Research survey of Internet users in North America found that only 5% of those who watch video on the Internet have rented or purchased a digital movie download, a lower overall number than indicate they have downloaded a movie free from a peer to peer sharing site. Movie downloads, both legal and illegal, remain the least watched genre of online video on the Internet, where short-form content such as sports and news clips is watched by nearly 7 in 10 of those that watch Internet video.

IPTV satellite transporters and enablers, Auroras Entertainment and Broadstream Communications, may join forces to create a new company that would challenge SES-AMERICOM in the satellite programming distribution space. This information is from FierceIPTV, who has learned about the companies' intentions from an industry source.

Auroras Entertainment and Broadstream Communications are both business-to-business providers of IPTV content aggregation and distribution utilizing satellite to transport live TV content for delivery to the local operator.

For more on the Broadstream-Auroras merger, see the article on FierceIPTV.

Thanks Brian.

Ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless could be available for deployment across Europe in early 2007 following the approval by the European Commission's Radio Spectrum Committee (RSC). The proposal will now be reviewed by the European Commission for a decision in the next few months.

At TelcoTV, Ben Bajarin, analyst with Creative Strategies, stated "The availability of ultra wideband-based solutions for connecting consumer electronics throughout a home is a critical step in the current evolution of networking and entertainment. This high-bandwidth connectivity will let service providers offer seamless solutions for bringing a range of new video services – IPTV, video on demand, online gaming, music and movies – from a single gateway or similar device to any display anywhere in the home without the need for new wiring, driving down costs and raising average revenue per subscriber."

The Netherlands have become the first nation to switch completely from analog to digital television signals.

The switch happened last night around midnight but only affected around 74,000 households, according to the Associated Press. The majority of the Netherlands, a country with a population of 16 million, already has cable, satellite, digital terrestrial, or IPTV.

KPN and Tele2 are both IPTV providers in the Netherlands.