CE and IT industry efforts to disparage cable’s proposed downloadable conditional access system (DCAS) as infeasible because of its alleged PC-incompatibility or that cable lacks the will to implement it are “inaccurate on both counts,” the NCTA told the FCC Mon. in reply comments.
The 90 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum set to be auctioned by the FCC by 2008 probably will be the last big block of spectrum below 2.5 GHz to reach market for many years. A June auction of advanced wireless services (AWS) spectrum (CD Feb 2 p5) will draw big firms. But the auction of 700 MHz spectrum to be cleared by the end of analog broadcasting (CD Feb 2 p1) may see the long-rumored entry into that spectrum by nontraditional players. Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile, which lobbied hard for the law authorizing the auction, are considered likely participants. The AWS auction is carriers’ first priority now, because it’s “first in the queue,” an industry source said.
The market for 802.11n equipment, the newest Wi-Fi standard, will hit $1 billion in 2007, Dell'Oro Group said in a research report. It said most applications will initially be in the residential market. The IEEE confirmed the draft version of the standard last week. ABI Research said Thurs. full ratification by the IEEE is likely in the last quarter of this year or the first of 2007. ABI also said in a report that equipment maker Airgo, which sold early pre-standard equipment, appears poised for growth as sales pick up. “It’s true that it is a relatively small player in an industry where volume is a critical competitive factor; but it has 3 generations of chips out there, it has critical relationships with equipment vendors, and it has significant intellectual property,” said ABI analyst Sam Lucero.
CEA and its members “view skeptically” cable’s prediction that its proposed downloadable conditional access system (DCAS) is feasible and will be ready to deploy nationally by July 2008 (CD Dec 5 p5), they said. In comments on NCTA’s Nov. 30 DCAS progress report, CEA urged the FCC to evaluate cable’s findings in that report similarly critically.
NAB’s hq will host a Mon. kickoff for a v-chip promotion effort announced Thurs. at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing (CD Jan 19 p1). Backers include NAB, CEA, NCTA, MPAA, Viacom, Time Warner, ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC Universal, DirecTV, Dish Network and the Ad Council. Most are expected to participate in the Mon. event, according to an industry source.
The Senate Commerce Committee is working on a bipartisan bill to address parents’ concern over inappropriate TV shows, but it won’t be ready until the committee finishes hearings on the Internet, Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) said Thurs. Stevens called the Internet a bigger problem than cable, satellite and over-the-air broadcasting together. But he didn’t rule out a Senate bill to accompany one adopted last year by the House that would hike indecency fines on broadcasters from $32,500 to $500,000. “We want to increase the fines and the effectiveness of the control the FCC has,” Stevens said.
Beceem Communications released the first terminal chipset whose feature set is based entirely on the new IEEE 802.16e Mobile WiMAX standard. Beceem called it the first “commercial Mobile WiMAX/WiBro chipset… suitable for mobile, portable and fixed” uses. “Our scalable chip architecture together with our efficient algorithms enables a highly cost-effective and power-efficient digital baseband implementation for WiMAX,” said Beceem Pres. Babu Mandava. He said the chip will meet an OFDMA airlink’s demands. The firm said the chipset would: (1) Set the bar for mobile WiMAX chipsets with high performance, small footprint, power efficiency and time- to-market leadership. (2) Hasten the market for Mobile WiMAX by enabling high-throughput terminals that significantly outpace 3G based solutions. (3) Enable rapid emergence of a terminal ecosystem for Mobile WiMAX due to the MS120 reference design kit’s completeness and simplicity.
Focus Enhancements delayed sampling of its ultra wideband (UWB) chipset to mid-year, pushing back availability of finished products based on the device to 2007, said Michael King, mktg. vp for the company’s semiconductor group. The chipset, designed for radio transmission and wireless video reception, was originally expected to be available in sample quantities last Aug. and start producing revenue for Focus in the 2nd half of this year. Partly to blame for the delay was Focus’s decision to switch from shipping samples individually to packaging them in modules by 3rd quarter, King said. Focus is in discussions with several manufacturers toward a module that would build evaluation kit functionality into the chipset, King said.
The Senate Commerce Committee will scrutinize cable’s proposed family tier at today’s (Thurs.) decency hearing, even though it’s too soon to tell if such programming will make money. While 4 cable operators have announced plans for family tiers, the packages aren’t being offered widely enough to gauge demand. Still, cable plans to tell the committee consumers want a family tier.
In what’s considered a major cable industry first, 3 integrated, IP-based devices that can act as cable modems, embedded multimedia terminal adapters (e-MTAs) and residential home networking gateways have been cleared for use by cable systems.