> Broadband Gear Report's VoIP Alert for October 12, 2006

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Up Front

I Want My TV Caller ID

Caller ID on the TV seems like a very cool app when you see it demoed in the exhibit hall at a cable confab. After all, it's easy to imagine how many of your subs would like to see who's calling before they pick up the phone during SportsCenter. Of course, a demo that initially wows on the show floor doesn't necessarily soar in the real world.

But TV Caller ID is an app that's taking off with real subs, according to a recent survey that not only shows strong devotion, but a willingness to pay extra for it.

Integra5 sent the survey out to more than 4,000 of Hargray Communications' TV caller ID customers, and got a high response rate of 14%. It gauged subs' satisfaction with their current TV caller ID service, as well as interest in more advanced services delivered to TVs and PCs that incorporate interactivity, personalization and management features, such as picture caller ID, Internet content alerts, targeted advertising with "click-to-call," and broadcast customer care messaging.

Subs showed a strong affinity for the currently available TV Caller ID app, with 91% saying they either "love" or "like" TV caller ID, and 65% saying they "love" it. More than 8o% reported that they'd told their friends and neighbors about it, and 58% had shown it to friends or neighbors. Even though it's possible to disable the app, 94% of respondents said they leave TV caller ID active all the time.

The survey also revealed noteworthy interest in advanced converged services, including:

60% in email and voicemail alerts to both TVs and PCs.
55% in service provider customer care messaging to TVs and PCs.
51% in converged services that incorporated wireless devices, such as Web content alerts to cell phones.
50% in services that incorporate personalization like TV and PC picture caller ID, setting caller ID preferences and a personalized network address book.
47% in interactive services like "click-to-call" and other applications that would allow them to control and manage their calls and user experience, such as automatically diverting calls to voicemail and controlling how and which TVs and PCs in the home display caller ID.
42% in content alerts, which incorporate RSS and Web-based technology to display local, national, and international news banners on TVs and PCs in real time.

Perhaps most interesting was the fact that the survey revealed subs' willingness to spend more each month for individual converged services. Interested households with annual incomes from $25K to more than $100K were willing to spend $3 for TV caller ID per month and $2 for PC caller ID per month. An average of 80% of interested households were willing to pay $1 or more each month per incremental converged service.

Gear Watch

New Products and Who's Buying

Canadian cable op Vidéotron signed a multi-year agreement with Nortel as its primary VoIP technology and professional services provider to expand telephony services to its 1.5 million subs.

Nortel is providing Vidéotron with an end-to-end VoIP solution incorporating Nortel IMS-ready technology and Nortel Global Services. This includes project management, multivendor integration and testing, security assessment, and deployment to help ensure a smooth end-to-end network implementation. Nortel also is providing technical support, emergency recovery and repair services.

Vidéotron's network will feature PacketCable-qualified Nortel Communication Server (CS) 2000-Compact soft switches as well as the Nuera BTX 4000 media gateway purchased through Nortel. Vidéotron will be using both PacketCable and SIP protocols for residential and business services.

Vidéotron's VoIP service will leverage its existing optical DWDM and SONET network, which uses the Nortel Metro Ethernet Networks portfolio including the Optical Metro 5100 and Optical Metro 3500 to provide IP voice transport and business services to more than 16 locations in the Quebec-Montreal-Toronto corridor.

Cable & Wireless International selected Sonus Networks as the supplier of its next-gen IP-voice network. Cable & Wireless International plans to deploy one of the world's largest IP-voice networks delivering primary line local, long-distance and international telephony service. Operating in 34 countries around the world, including 14 islands in the Caribbean, Cable and Wireless will initially deploy its Sonus-based network to support the Caribbean islands and Bermuda. In select markets, Cable and Wireless plans ultimately to replace its infrastructure with Sonus' IMS-ready access solution.

Cable & Wireless is deploying a suite of Sonus' IMS-ready solutions including both the GSX9000 and GSX4000 open services switch, the PSX call routing server, the ASX access server, the network border switch for IP-to-IP peering and security, and the Sonus Insight management system for OSS and billing support.

TV Cabo, Portugal's largest pay TV operator, selected C-COR to ensure increased network reliability and lower operating costs through analysis, control, management, and monitoring of its DOCSIS networks.

"C-COR's CableEdge provides us with crucial analysis tools to help sustain a reliable delivery of a suite of services including ultra-high-speed broadband and VoIP," Zeinal Bava, CEO of TV Cabo, says. "These tools will allow us to ensure a higher quality of service. By close monitoring of our network we will be able to anticipate any issue and address potential congestion before it impacts our subscribers."
Nortel unveiled what it is calling "the industry's first end-to-end mobile MIMO-powered WiMAX solution to deliver 4G Mobile broadband content -- including Internet-Everywhere, mobile video, VoIP, streaming media, data applications and mobile electronic commerce."

Nortel reports that ops will be able to deliver video-grade content for as little as one-tenth the cost per bit of current 3G wireless networks. In addition, Nortel's MIMO-based mobile WiMAX can deliver "three times the speed and twice the subscriber capacity with greater range and building penetration in urban areas compared to non-MIMO WiMAX solutions." The mobile WiMAX solution will deliver speeds rivaling current home broadband Internet technologies with much greater efficiency than current wireless capabilities, according to Nortel.

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