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Friday, June 7, 2002 |
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• ReplayTV users sue entertainment industry • ARRIS targets
last-mile market with • NTT rolls with broadband wireless access trial • Sprint expands Business DSL offering • SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo 2002 in brief • Internet rolls onto highways • Adelphia declines to cover Rigases' legal costs ReplayTV users sue entertainment industry Some people are passionate about their right to use their digital video recorder to digitally record programing to view content later and skip commercials. So passionate in fact, that an online-civil-liberties group has filed a lawsuit against several entertainment industry giants. The suit, filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of five ReplayTV 4000 owners, asks the court to rule that their use of the ReplayTV device is legal under copyright law. The suit, which was filed yesterday in federal court in Los Angeles, is in direct response to an earlier suit filed by Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc. and General Electric to prevent SONICblue from shipping its broadband-enabled ReplayTV 4000 digital video recorder. In their filing, the entertainment companies allege that the DVR violates copyright laws and claim that the ReplayTV 4000's ability to enable users to automatically skip commercials and send digital copies of shows over the Internet to up to 15 other device users will hurt the entertainment companies' advertising and subscription fees revenue streams. Despite the lawsuit, SONICblue began shipping the ReplayTV 4000 DVRs a few weeks later -- to date the company has sold about 5,000 set-tops. Although the entertainment companies have never said they plan to sue users of the box directly, the ReplayTV customers involved in the suit have said they fear that they might be sued for using the device. "This suit is nothing more than a publicity stunt," said the networks and studios involved in the suit against ReplayTV in a statement distributed by the Motion Picture Association of America. "Our lawsuit is against SONICblue and ReplayTV -- not individual users. We have never indicated any desire or intent to bring legal action against individual consumers for use of this device." "The point we want to make here to Hollywood is,
when it comes to television, we're not in their movie theaters,
they're in our living room," said EFF attorney Fred von Lohmann. Related stories:
ARRIS targets last-mile
market with To assist operators in penetrating fiber deeper into the network, ARRIS has introduced its Global Access Fiber-to-the-Subscriber product line. The unified access network architecture can be deployed as fiber-to-the-curb or as fiber-to-the-subscriber, according to ARRIS. Although specific savings were not outlined by ARRIS, the company said compared to traditional Passive Optical Networks, the Global Access family of products enables operators to achieve cost-effective fiber-to-the-home/business deployments. The product line is designed to deliver voice, video and both residential and business data services over a single fiber infrastructure. The Global Access solutions lower network costs per subscriber because more users can be serviced with less committed fiber, said ARRIS. The architecture is capable of delivering from 1 gigabit per second to 12 gigabits per second aggregate bandwidth per 100 subscribers. The product line, which is based on an active Optical Network Unit, introduces DWDM into the access network to achieve a fiber-lean backhaul -- serving as many as 960 subscribers on a single fiber. This compares to a traditional PON architecture which typically serves 32 subscribers per fiber. Customer trials in the United States and Central America are slated to get under way in the third quarter. Last month ARRIS lowered its second-quarter guidance
after Adelphia Communications Corp., one of its large customers,
said it would not be placing any new orders in the near-term. ARRIS
said it expects Q2 revenue to be between $185 million and $195 million,
with EPS in the range of 1 cent to 4 cents a share. Adelphia accounted
for 8 percent of ARRIS' total revenue in calendar 2001 and 9 percent
in the first quarter of 2002, the company said in a statement. Related stories:
NTT rolls with wireless broadband access trial NTT Communications Corp. is testing the waters of wireless broadband access with a trial in Japan. The "WINQ," or Wireless, Intelligent, Non-line-of-sight, and Quick install, trial will get under way in September and run through August of next year. The trial will be conducted in the Kanazawa area of Ishikawa Prefecture. Using equipment from SOMA Networks Inc., NTT intends to evaluate transmission quality, analyze wireless propagation characteristics and affirm the stability of connectivity with the Internet and subscriber telephone lines. The SOMAport incorporates W-CDMA technology for wide-area
wireless broadband communications. The network appliance provides
unlimited wireless broadband access up to 5 Mbps, an instant broadband
terminal with built-in antenna (no installation or adjustment required);
and an all-in-one data/voice package. NTT Com will distribute roughly 100 SOMAports to trial participants. The company will recruit trial participants from the residences and businesses in the Kanazawa area. Interested parties can apply online at www.winq-kanawaza.net in early July.
Sprint expands Business DSL offering Sprint has been offering its Business DSL service package to small businesses since last year, and now the communications company is expanding its offering to include large business customers. Sprint is rolling out the service in 32 markets, and
is offering large business customers high-speed access speeds of
up to 4 Megabits per second downstream and 512 kilobits per second
upstream. The service comes with an installation guarantee within
45 days, a 99.9 percent network availability performance guarantee
and a 90-day satisfaction guarantee. The data-only communications solution is designed to provide the technology necessary to connect multiple locations and a telecommuters work force to the corporate LAN, according to Sprint. In addition to Internet access, the large customer service package enables access to a company's Intranet and software applications. The service is aimed at small businesses offers up to 1.5 Megabits per second downstream and 384 kilobits per second upstream. Features include e-mail and up to 14 static IP addresses. Related stories:
SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo 2002 in brief Day 3: A wave of companies will be showcasing their products and technologies this week at SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo 2002 in San Antonio. The CED Magazine staff will bring you the latest news and product information each day live from the show. Below is a glimpse of what's happening at the show, but for complete show coverage visit www.cedmagazine.com/scte2002/index.htm Wave7 Optics unveils two new gateways The LML access system provides video (cable TV and digital, including
IP streaming), high-speed data and telephony services (IP-based
or circuit switched) with dedicated and on-demand symmetrical data
rates of up to 500 Mbps on a single fiber. The QAM Array, which has been specifically designed for use in non-S-A digital systems, combines several features, including transport stream processing, QAM modulation and upconversion. It also requires only 3 RU of rack space and can provide up to 16 QAM channels, with a maximum data output of 620 Mbps. In addition, the input interface is card-based and will be available in several versions, such as multiple ASI and Gigabit Ethernet inputs. The DVP encoder, which allows users to convert analog programs to digital, employs MPEG-2 compression to increase bandwidth efficiency which, in turn, allows operators to recover bandwidth for such services as HDTV and VOD/SVOD. The encoder also allows users to transmit multiple programs per OC-3 link in digital transport applications, and encode analog programs, including locally inserted advertising for use on the digital tier. While the QAM Array is currently available for shipment, the DVP
encoder is expected to be available for shipment in the fourth quarter
of 2002. Two active equipment configurations of the BPH series are available:
the BPH1230 and the BPH1730. The BPH1230 is designed to house line
extender and tap/splitter combinations, and the BPH1730 is designed
for housing active trunk amplifiers and tap/splitter combos. Telecommunications equipment provider General Bandwidth announced plans for future additions to its flagship G6 Packet Telephony Migration Platform, and one specific bit of news announced was that it will incorporate the latest Voice-over-IP solution from Texas Instruments. Under the current agreement, a next generation General Bandwidth product will be based on the TNETV3010 solution, comprised of TI's TMS320C55x digital signal processor (DSP) cores and Telogy Software products. The TNETV3010 features an optimized design that addresses channel density, power per channel, solution architecture and toll quality features to deliver a complete solution at an optimized density for specific applications. For General Bandwidth, the TI solution offered the lowest power and smallest area available, while maintaining the advanced voice quality and features required to do voice services in a packet environment, according to company sources. Ti's TNETV3010 solution suite combines hardware and software-based functionality, with the appropriate combinations of programmable, low-power TMS320C54x and TMS320C55x DSP engines, RISC processors, internal memory, hardware accelerated features, and system interfaces. General Bandwidth and Texas Instruments have been collaborating
on technology in a variety of areas over the past two years. Texas
Instruments is also a strategic investor in General Bandwidth as
well.
Copyright 2002 Sun Media Corporation Don't be surprised if you see someone cruising down the information superhighway - literally - thanks to a recently announced Internet service for mobile homes, RVs and trucks. In July, Skycasters LLC, an Akron, Ohio, provider of satellite broadband services, is launching the Transportable Solution, a fully portable two-way, high-speed satellite dish and Internet service that can go anywhere a vehicle can. Scheduled for Federal Communications Commission approval in June, the Skycasters technology will work throughout North America, including continental United States, Alaska, the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada. To use it, subscribers must have an authorized service center attach
a satellite dish to their vehicle and receive training in how to
operate it. As innovative as the Skycasters solution sounds, there is a catch. The dish doesn't work while a vehicle is moving, according to company CEO John Williams. In fact the dish assembly must by "fully stabilized" before it can be used. "Fully stabilized means the vehicle must not sway by a gust of wind or by a person getting in or out of the vehicle," Williams said. Skycasters is working on a truly mobile version of the Transportable
Solution so the Net can be accessed while a vehicle is moving, but
hopefully not by the driver. "That's at least a year away"
Williams added. Skycasters' technology isn't an inexpensive automotive option. The equipment, depending on the configuration, can cost anywhere from $ 4,000 to $ 7,000 US. Internet service costs between $ 100 US and $ 300 US a month depending on the amount of online time used.
Adelphia declines to cover Rigases' legal costs Copyright 2002 P.G. Publishing Co. By John Rega, Bloomberg News Adelphia Communications Corp. said yesterday it wouldn't cover legal costs of four members of its controlling Rigas family and another employee because they breached their duty to the cable-television company. The company, which is struggling to stay out of bankruptcy court in part because of loans to Rigas family members, said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it revoked legal protections previously promised to John Rigas, Timothy Rigas, Michael Rigas, Peter Venetis and James Brown. "The board of directors, based on the recommendation of the special committee and consultation with counsel to the special committee, has determined that each" of the five men "deliberately breached his duty to the company and/or its shareholders," the filing said. Venetis may be reinstated if he "presents the board with information such reconsideration is appropriate," the filing said. Adelphia shares were delisted by the Nasdaq Stock Market for the company's failure to file an annual report, and last traded at 81 cents after losing 97 percent of their value this year. The company is based in Coudersport, Potter County. Related stories:
• AGL selects Alcatel Financial terms of the three-year agreement were not released. • Nortel raises $1.49 billion • Pioneer signs PHILA doc The PHILA agreement gives the set-top box vendor access to Motorola
Broadband's proprietary DFAST (Dynamic Feedback Arrangement Scrambling
Technique) copy protection technology and configurations to build
OpenCable-compliant set-top boxes that interface with POD (point
of deployment) cards provided by cable operators. Pioneer joins
Scientific-Atlanta Inc., Motorola and Pace Micro Technologies on
the list. Motorola invented DFAST and provides it to CableLabs on
a royalty-free basis, but set-top vendors must agree to the terms
of the PHILA license before the secrets behind DFAST are handed
over. • iMagicTV stock moves to Nasdaq SmallCap In March, the company was notified that its common shares were no in compliance with Nasdaq's $1 minimum closing bid price requirement for continued listing. The move to the SmallCap will give iMagicTV until at least Sept. 3 to meet the minimum bid requirement.
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