"We get lots and lots of questions about U-verse and IPTV," said Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner at the Citigroup 17th Annual Global Entertainment Media and Telecommunications Conference. "I know there is a lot of concern about whether the product will work--and much of that is centered around [whether] the fiber-to-the-node architecture will work and supply enough bandwidth. The concern is that we will be coming back and announcing a large capital program to take fiber to the home. What I would tell you is that we are pleased with the rollout at this point. We would always like it to go faster--we’re more impatient than all of you here in terms of wanting to see revenue."

Read more in Telephony Online.

Amino and Orb Networks announced a partnership during CES that will integrate Amino's AmiNET series of set-top boxes (STBs) with Orb's software and roll out a series of product offerings throughout the year. The combination of technologies will close the gap between the STB and the PC, using the Orb MyCasting application platform as the bridge. Orb and Amino also are working to improve the consumer experience by providing an enhanced user-friendly interface.

Like the Slingbox, Orb has created a "MyCasting" product that gives consumers the ability to stream their media over the Internet and watch or listen to it on nearly any device. But unlike Slingbox, Orb's MyCasting is a software-only solution that installs on the users computer to create a personal broadcasting system.

In New Jersey, Verizon's FiOS TV is available now to approximately 250,000 households in parts of 106 communities in Bergen, Camden, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Somerset and Union counties. The service will soon be expanded to hundreds of thousands of additional households in more than 100 additional communities. Under the state's new streamlined video franchise law, Verizon has announced plans to offer FiOS TV over its all-fiber network in more than 300 communities in the next few years.

Verizon launched the service in New Jersey Thursday at the company's video hub office in Freehold. The new, state-of-the-art video distribution center receives video signals from Verizon's super-head-end offices and then distributes the programming throughout the state over the new fiber network.

Like Apple with the iPhone, Microsoft has certainly caused a media frenzy with their IPTV over Xbox 360 announcement. There are articles abound either proclaiming the news or denouncing it as a distant dream.

Here are some interesting articles both pertaining to the Xbox 360 and not:

• Light Reading's Cisco & Microsoft: IPTV War Ahead? speculates whether the two behemoths may soon face each other as Cisco assembles their own IPTV "ecosystem".
• Next, jump over to Engadget who got to experiment with IPTV running over a Xbox 360 system. They also have quite a few pictures of the interface.
• Lastly, Engadget writes that Microsoft has partnered with AT&T for their IPTV over Xbox 360 service.

Lastly, check out the comments in the two Engadget articles as I often find them more entertaining then the actual article.

Network Neutrality has already landed on the plate of the 110th Congress, only four days after it reconvened. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) introduced the bill, known as the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which can be viewed here. This will be the second go around of network neutrality legislation.

The legislation aims to prevent broadband service providers from blocking or prioritizing traffic over its network. Dorgan said, "The marketplace picked winners and losers, not some central gatekeeper. That freedom — the very core of what makes the Internet what it is today — must be preserved."

AT&T Executive Vice President for Federal Relations Tim McKone stated, "It's unfortunate that at a time when the U.S. ranks 11th behind South Korea in broadband deployment, precious time is being spent on legislation that will impede, not increase America's standing. We continue to believe that net neutrality regulations are unwarranted."

Maybe I'm missing something, but how does network neutrality legislation impede broadband deployment?

January 24, 2007
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA

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Apple yesterday revealed Apple TV (often referred to as iTV), a wireles device that will allow consumers to play iTunes content, including movies, TV shows, music, photos and podcasts, (shouldn't iTunes be rebranded to iMedia or something?) from a Mac or PC on a TV. Users will be able to browse and view their entire collection of digital media from across the room using the Apple Remote. Apple TV connects to almost all modern widescreen televisions, and will be shipping in February for just $299.



So what will it be for you--the SlingCatcher, Xbox 360 or the Apple TV? To us, it all comes down to where you have your media. If a user doesn't hold a lot of content, i.e. movies and television shows in iTunes, then what is the attraction for the Apple TV? While we admit that iTunes does offer a nice selection of content, one will always be limited to iTunes. This is exactly what Sling Media's CEO Blake Krikorian referred to.

In off topic news, Apple revealed the much anticipated iPhone. As it doesn't relate to any of our core subjects and considering the media blitz on the device, we won't go into details but they have a nice demo of it here.

France-based Iwedia, a provider of embedded software for digital television, and UK-based Ocean Blue Software, developer of software solutions for the digital home, announced the certification by the UK Digital Television Group (DTG) of their MHEG-5 V1.06 solution.

The solution is the result of the integration of Iwedia’s Comedia DVB middleware and Ocean Blue’s Voyager MHEG-5 and DSM-CC software. Targeted at set-top boxes and integrated digital television manufacturers, the solution is available in conjunction with a wide range of chipsets.

Verizon, wanting to stay on top of the heap, has revved up their FiOS Internet service. FiOS customers in five states can now enjoy up to 50 Mbps (megabits per second) downstream and 5 Mbps upstream, as the company continues to raise the speed of its super-high-speed, all-fiber Internet service.

At 50 Mbps, a user could download a 5-megabyte mp3 in approximately 1 second or a 5-gigabyte high-definition movie in around 15 minutes. This naturally depends on both sides of the connection.

The mid-tier maximum connection speed in those markets was increased from 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream to 20/5 Mbps, and the top-tier service was increased from 30/5 Mbps to 50/5 Mbps. The company plans similar FiOS Internet speed increases this year in some of the 11 other states where the service is available.

Orbit E-Commerce Inc. (OECI), and its major shareholder, PureNet.Tv Canada Inc. announced yesterday that the system design has been completed and equipment required to deploy the Company's first IPTV facility in China is now being assembled and tested in Toronto.

Over the past three years, OECI and PureNet have worked closely with Zhone, Tandberg Television, Foundry Networks, and Redback Networks to develop a digital IPTV network capable of serving millions of subscribers.

The final testing of the digital system in the coming weeks will take place in Toronto where the Company and its vendors will have assembled a working IPTV head-end. The replica of the IPTV head-end will be delivered to China where the Company will commence offering digital video IP services.

According to an article in YONHAP NEWS, the South Korean government-led convergence committee will draft a bill on IPTV by the end of this month. The bill will be submitted to the parliament in March.

The government is pushing for convergence between communications and broadcasting in South Korea but is facing stiff opposition due to competition between these two industries.

Update: South Korea's Information Minister Rho Jun Hyong has also stated the country will launch IPTV in 2007.

Considered the next big thing in the consumer telecom space, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is fast making headway across the entire Asia Pacific region. The deployment of IPTV in the region has been further hastened by the explosion of broadband in various high growth markets across Asia Pacific, even as service providers across the region have invested heavily in the network infrastructure required for offering these services. Besides, IPTV has generated a new revenue stream, amidst dwindling fixed line revenues, and rapid advancements in compression, transmission, and watermarking technologies have enabled more and more service providers to jump onto the IPTV bandwagon. In line with these trends, the Asia Pacific IPTV market is set for considerable growth over the forecast period, with the number of IPTV subscribers expected to increase from the existing 1,470,000 to 27.4 million by 2013.

In yet another story that relates to the union between the PC and TV, Starz Entertainment announced that Vongo, the Internet-based subscription video download service, will be available to play on the television as result of a new relationship with Microsoft for Windows Vista and the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system.

The Xbox 360 will automatically check to see which Windows XP or Vista-based devices are registered on the network and ask the user whether they want to access content, such as their Vongo movies, from that PC.

So what does this mean for your current provider's on-demand pay-per-view service? Big trouble. Vongo subscribers have unlimited access to more than 1,000 movies and 2,500 total video selections as well as a live, streaming Starz TV channel for a monthly cost of $9.99. That makes the $3.99 per-movie rental fee most providers charge for on-demand a bit hefty.

But where does simplicity come in? Renting a movie via on-demand is pretty easy and nearly instantaneous. Renting a movie online will add a delay to that movie-going experience. However, for those who might not have on-demand movies, this would be a solution.

A surge in the availability of high-quality web-based video content and the proliferation of solutions that network-enabled TVs will usher in a 'new wave' of television viewing, one defined less by 'walled garden' PayTV operators and more by open access and a variety of highly-specialized niche content.

Verizon gave those who can't yet get FiOS another reason to be jealous as they unveiled the FiOS generation of its Verizon One communications device, bringing together an all-in-one voice, data and video center for the home. Expected to be available this spring, the next-generation Verizon One will be manufactured exclusively for Verizon FiOS Internet customers under a multi-year contract with OpenPeak.

Sleeker, more powerful and more flexible than the current Verizon One device, the next-generation command center features a digital cordless phone mounted on a tablet-sized base. The seven-inch, high-resolution touchscreen provides a one-stop solution for multiple household communications needs. From the device, FiOS customers can access their e-mail and voice mail; log into personal calendars and address books; consult movie listings; and check the latest news and weather. Additional features planned for the future would allow customers to access traffic reports; order a pizza or movie tickets online; and send memos or text messages to family members.

Did we mention it comes in different colors?

The new device will accommodate both traditional and VoIP phone calls, while also streaming music from the Internet to be replayed over attached stereo speakers and previewing images or video from digital cameras or camcorders. It will also play movie trailers from the Internet, connect to a printer and support a total of up to five handsets throughout the home.