With all the doom and gloom in the air, it's hard to remember that things go in cycles. As broadband moves into homes and analog gives way to digital, the pendulum will swing again.
News about People and Companies influencing The Broadband Home
There's a growing debate about why broadband adoption isn't growing more quickly -- is it caused by availability, price, or the lack of compelling applications and content. We think the answer is a combination of these factors, but there are still few applications to differentiate broadband from dial-up. We share some thoughts on one we really like and ask you, our reader, to tell us what applications YOU find most compelling right now.
While cable operators have been clear in their pursuit of the triple play (voice, data and video), telcos, especially those in the US, have been back and forth on the question of whether they should offer video services. We spoke with Manitoba Telecom Services about their video trial and with Next Level, the technology supplier to MTS, Qwest and others, to gauge what's happening.
We've heard complaints from some land developers and builders about the lack of responsiveness of incumbent telcos and cable operators in meeting the needs of their communities for high speed Internet services. Toll Brothers created Advanced Broadband, a wholly owned subsidiary, to put high speed data and video services under their own control. We visited a new development in New Jersey to see a system in operation.
Our previous issue discussed six companies focused on expanding the digital carrying capacity of existing cable plants. We continue with a report on Advent and analyze the likely sequence for cable operators to spend money on these solutions.
New products for powerline networking based on the HomePlug specifications are starting to come to market. We provide an introduction to HomePlug and report on visits and interviews with Cogency and Asoka USA. The next issue will report on our in-home tests of HomePlug equipment.
We've added a glossary to this report on our website. Just point to highlighted acronyms and phrases to see a definition. We'd appreciate your feedback on this feature.
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