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> Broadband Gear Report's VoIP Alert for January 16, 2006

Up Front

'06 and Beyond: VoIP Continues to Blaze Into HFC Nets

Comcast Chairman/CEO Brian Roberts reported at a Citigroup investor conference last week that the op signed up more than 200,000 VoIP subs in 2005. But while Comcast is the biggest MSO, it still lags behind telephony trailblazer Time Warner Cable, which has been widely reported as finishing '05 with around a million VoIP customers.

Watch for Comcast to push its IP telephony numbers strategy into higher gear in '06, however. Roberts says that Comcast plans to add another 1 million customers by the end of this year. As for TWC, some analysts think that it will focus on scaling VoIP technology in 2006 rather than just fast deployments.

What's Your Five-Year Plan?

Looking down the IP telephony road, Gary Traver, SVP/COO at Comcast Media Center, focused on some big-number predictions at last week's SCTE Conference on Emerging Technologies in Tampa, FL. He said that in the next five years, VoIP is projected to increase by some 1,500 percentage points, skyrocketing to more than 20 million homes by 2010.

"Winning the battle for the media customers of the year 2010 will come down to who does a better job of serving the customer's need for convenience, choice and relevance; who has the best reputation for providing the services that customers want; and who offers the best comparable value," Traver said.

Smaller Ops Want Bigger VoIP

And it's not just the larger MSOs hailing VoIP's rosy prospects. Small- and medium-sized ops are opening their wallets for technologies that will enable their own plans. For example, Service Electric, which serves about 300,000 subs in Pennsylvania, said it is using OpVista's ROADM and Ultra-DWDM technology and its switch ring architecture, which will significantly push forward the op's VoIP strategy. The network optically interconnects systems across Pennsylvania and New Jersey on two interconnected rings. The network supports bidirectional transport of GigE for VoIP as well as commercial IP data traffic (not to mention VOD, digital simulcast and unidirectional broadcast video traffic).

"The long distances and 'any-to-any' type of connectivity required for our system fit perfectly with OpVista's product and architecture," said Jim Dorsa, director of engineering at Service Electric, says.

Learn Before Leaping

Smaller op BendBroadband recently launched VoIP services in central Oregon with enhanced voicemail, E911 and 20 calling features including call waiting, caller ID and three-way calling. But without the deeper IP know-how that some of the big MSOs have, BendBroadband decided to ramp up for the rollout with customized instructor-led training from NCTI on VoIP installation and troubleshooting of residential telephone service.

"We contracted NCTI to deliver training on our premises to enable BendBroadband installation and field operations staff to gain appropriate knowledge of VoIP technology prior to our service launch," the op's VP of Voice Services Paul Azar says.

Hitching to the VoIP Star

VoIP technology will continue to heavily infiltrate cable's HFC networks, both big and small, in 2006, and some experts say that it won't be long before VoIP makes it way deeper down the consumer pipe — even being built into laptops at the chip level.

"Furious rates of scientific advance will make the last 10 years of rapid technology development seem like a slow train ride," Jim Carroll, futurist, trends and innovation expert predicted at last week's SCTE ET conference. "Optical researchers are learning how to slow the speed of light to 30 miles a second in order to develop the next generation of optical router. Next-generation storage companies are dealing with concepts that involve storing three data bits in every single molecule. It's only a matter of time before VoIP is built into every laptop at the chip level."

In the Know

CableLabs VoIP Peering: An Update

Engineering experts have said that VoIP peering will be a huge talking point in 2006, and recent moves in that space are starting to prove that out.

In December's issue of BGR's VoIP Alert, we reported that CableLabs had put out a RFI for technologies to enable cable ops to perform VoIP peering. CableLabs says that it received a good response to the RFI, garnering about 30 replies. (And that's despite the quick turnaround that vendors had to deal with as the RFI was issued in late November, and the deadline was mid-December.) While CableLabs didn't give specifics on the info it received, Internet gossips and bloggers were batting about names such as Stealth Communications, NeuStar and VeriSign as some of the respondents.

According to the RFI, topics of particular interest included services or products that could enable end-to-end VoIP service peering between MSO members, and between MSOs and selected service providers, as well as those that can provide access to PSTN SS7 databases like LNP, 800 and CNAM via IP-based protocols such as ENUM and SIP. Info also was requested about technologies for monitoring VoIP SLAs and providing service quality metrics for VoIP traffic exchange, as were methods and products for telephone number to SIP URI ENUM provisioning, input on the various push and pull models for distributing and replicating TN-URI information.

Gear Watch

VoIP Toolbox News

• BigBand Networks says its new 6.0 software release for the Cuda CMTS will help cable ops to improve delivery of not only VoIP, but IPTV services as well. Version 6.0 features include support for hitless software upgrades that maintain service sessions through deployment modification, enhancement of integrated redundant elements with rapid failover time, standards-based integration with multimedia services, and robust signal delivery both upstream and downstream in multiple plant conditions.
• Motorola's new residential seamless mobility gateway (RSG) lets customers use the same mobile device — and the same number — as they roam in and out of their homes. The product includes an 802.11b/g wireless access point, a four-port router and a built-in VoIP adapter. There are two products in this family: the RSG2500 (expected availability Winter 2006) and the RSG3500 (expected availability Summer 2006), which adds the ability to power two lines of primary VoIP telephone service within the home.
• VoIP calling is one of the features Video Without Boundaries is touting for its new MediaREADY 6000 set-top box. The product combines DVD/MP3/CD recording and playback with an Internet browser, email, media jukebox and includes onboard CableCARD digital cable tuning and dual ATSC/NTSC/PAL tuners for watch-record, AAC/iPod support, HD MPEG 2-4 (H.264)/DivX/WMV/VC-1 codecs, and VoIP/video conferencing support (camera and microphone). "MediaREADY 6000 owners will be able to take advantage of emerging technologies such as VoIP phone calling right from their living rooms, while also eliminating the need for separate cable boxes," Jeffrey Harrell, president/CEO of Video Without Boundaries, says.
• Whaleback Systems named DecisionOne as a certified installer of Whaleback Systems' SMB1500, "the first business telephone system built from the ground up for broadband." DecisionOne will provide infrastructure assessments, installation services, and first-level technical support for Whaleback Systems' customers. For more on Whaleback's new SMB1500, see the "Next-Gen Voice" section of the Jan. 13 issue of Broadband Gear Report.

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