Broadcom's GPON product family complements broadband carrier access portfolio

PARIS, FRANCE, Broadband World Forum Europe 2009: Broadcom Corp. announced its first product offerings in the Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) market with a scalable family of products spanning from gigabit bridges to fully integrated access device (IAD) capabilities.

Broadcom's GPON portfolio leverages their field proven processor, switch and physical layer (PHY) intellectual property cores, in conjunction with the industry's most widely deployed Linux and VoIP software suite, enabling FTTH and FTTN solutions. With this announcement, Broadcom further completes its carrier access portfolio delivering highly integrated solutions for ADSL, VDSL and now GPON technologies.

Broadcom's new GPON solutions enable high definition (HD) video, VoIP, high-speed internet (HSI), gaming, and higher bandwidth provisional services such as video-on-demand (VoD) and rapid download of IP video content.

FTTH and FTTN solutions can deliver much faster broadband speeds to the end-user than is possible over the existing copper access network allowing service providers to offer advanced triple play services.

The Broadcom BCM6800 family of GPON gateway processors are designed to facilitate the realization of more cost effective optical network terminals (ONTs) or optical network units (ONUs) used in conjunction with service provider passive optical networks (PONs).

The product family provides unparalleled levels of integration utilizing Broadcom's high performance, 400 MHz dual core processor architecture, hardware-assisted gigabit bridging and routing, hardware-assisted IPsec security for virtual private network (VPN) termination, gigabit switch and PHYs, VoIP, support for USB 2.0 host and devices, and support for Broadcom's latest WLAN devices utilizing PCI Express. The BCM6800 family includes TR-069 and OMCI management software.

Another unique capability in Broadcom's GPON portfolio is the world's first integration of the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) standard, which has already received MoCA 1.1 certification from the MoCA Certification Board.

The solution in the BCM6800 portfolio integrates a MoCA media access controller (MAC), PHY transceiver and RF tuner which enable service providers (using GPON technology) to easily and cost effectively transform a subscriber's existing coax network into a home media distribution gateway.

As a result, service providers that use coax for media distribution within the home can offer whole-home digital media services that allow subscribers to securely access, store and share multiple types of digital media content including HDTV programs, video-on-demand, digital video recorder (DVR) recordings, Internet content and VoIP.

Each solution within the BCM6800 product family leverages Broadcom's success in xDSL gateway chips and residential gateway software development and is designed in a 65 nanometer (nm) CMOS process that provides high integration, low power consumption, and small footprint size.

Telecom carriers and OEM customers are able to preserve their software investment across multiple access technologies by leveraging Broadcom's field proven networking, management, Kernel, and VoIP software architectures used on all Broadcom ADSL, VDSL and PON subscriber products.

"Our entry into the GPON market complements our carrier access portfolio of highly integrated, versatile single-chip solutions for next generation broadband services by enabling gigabit networks and extending performance, cost and manageability of subscriber equipment," said Greg Fischer, Vice President & General Manager of Broadcom's Carrier Access line of business.

"Our presence and commitment to the carrier market are well established with leadership in DSL, Ethernet and WLAN products. The global GPON standard provides next generation FTTH and FTTN opportunities and we look forward to extending our leading access technologies and investments in this area."

The Broadcom BCM6800 family of GPON devices are now shipping to early access customers. Pricing is available upon request.

Report on China telecom industry forecast to 2012

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "China Telecom Industry Forecast to 2012" report to its offering.

China's telecom sector has been continuously witnessing considerable developments over the recent years. The country now owns the world's largest telecommunication networks in terms of both network capacity and number of subscribers.

The telecom industry has experienced double-digit growth over the past decade. And the recent move by the government, aimed at restructuring the domestic telecom industry following the issuance of 3G licenses in early 2009, has brought about a wave of rapid development and deployment of telecom infrastructure throughout the country.

According to our report on the sector called "China Telecom Industry Forecast to 2012", operators continue to invest billions of dollars into the development of world-class telecom infrastructure in the country, despite gloomy economic environment. The issuance of 3G licenses in January 2009 has initiated a wave of investments that has long been waited for.

We have found that the country continue to see fast addition of subscribers in its mobile, Internet and broadband sector. Meanwhile, declining trend has been seen in its fixed line telephony market and we expect same trend to continue in near future as well.

However, subscribers in mobile, Internet and broadband sector are forecasted to grow at CAGR of more than 8 percent, around 17 percent and 26 percent, respectively during 2009-2012. Their respective penetration rates will approach nearly 67 percent, 42 percent and 16 percent, by the end of 2012. Various factors which will drive this future growth have been thoroughly discussed in the report.

Service providers need to focus on the channel

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: Back in the late 90s when the telecoms industry first developed broadband technologies such as DSL, it was the wealth of opportunities that the technology would create that really excited service providers.

Over the past two decades broadband access has provided a good revenue source and has been highly profitable for many, but service providers have never really been able to take full advantage of the other opportunities broadband access provides.

IPTV and VoD have been a success for some, but certainly from a profitability point of view, will not be an option for all. Many of the other opportunities often highlighted, such as online music, gaming, and even technical support and content back up have also been taken up by other players and therefore have become fiercely competitive markets.

Michael Philpott, Practice Leader, says: “One issue that service providers will have to tackle if they are to get back in the game, is a more prominent marketing channel into the consumer home”.

“Often the main points of customer contact for the broadband service provider is when the customer first signs up from the broadband service, and when something goes wrong -– with only the odd e-mail flyer in-between,” says Philpott, based in London.

“Operators can try and do take advantage of these main points of contact, but to be really successful, they need to be looking for innovative and eye-catching ways of opening up more consistent communication channels with their customer base.”

Ovum is pleased to see that such innovation is starting to enter the market. Those few service providers that still have a successful Internet portal, are starting to innovate around that as a way of entertaining, helping, communication with and up-selling services to existing clients.

Others, who do not have a very successful portal, are starting to experiment with free services, to gain the initial traction, and then looking for ways to further up sell services on top of the initial offering.

One such pilot by a tier one player in the US found that such a strategy increased its marketing success rate over traditional methods by 200 percent, as well as gaining:

* A significant increase in VAS awareness –- 615 percent increase in web traffic for the music service.
* An increase in service uptake –- 55 percent increase in new security subscriptions.
* A decrease in service churn –- 20 percent decrease in security service churn.

Such innovation has been a long time in coming, but it is certainly not too late, and operators will need to continue to innovate in both the services and applications they offer, and in how they market and deliver those services, if they are to successfully grow consumer revenues in the long term.

World’s top 10 most fiber broadband-enabled countries -- Singapore to overtake South Korea as fiber leader!

BOSTON, USA: “The future of broadband is clearly in fiber,” according to analyst, Ben Piper, Director of the Strategy Analytics Multiplay Market Dynamics service. “The existing Telco xDSL infrastructure is reaching the end of its useful life. Soon it will no longer be able to support increasingly bandwidth-heavy consumer applications.”

Table: Source -- Strategy Analytics
Rankings just released by Strategy Analytics show that eight of the world’s top 10 most fiber broadband-enabled countries are Asian and Eastern European.

At the end of 2009, 51 percent of South Korean households will have a fiber connection, making it the most fiber-connected country worldwide. Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Lithuania round out the top five in the firm’s rankings.

Singapore will overtake South Korea for the number one position by 2013, according to Strategy Analytics. Part of the Singaporean government's “iN2015” initiative is the construction of a 1 Gbps Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, currently underway, with mandated 100% coverage by January 1, 2013.

Likewise, Australia, which this year launched its $31 billion National Broadband Network (NBN), will catapult from 21st to 8th place worldwide by 2013, according to Strategy Analytics. The government-backed FTTP based solution aims to deliver 100 Mbps FTTP service to 90% of Australian households, schools, and businesses over the next eight years.

Strategy Analytics’ Global Broadband Forecast: 1H’09 provides coverage 60 countries in five discrete regions, and provides history and forecasts for key metrics including: Households, PC Penetration, Internet Access Subscriptions, Household Internet Access Penetration, Broadband Subscriptions, Household Broadband Access Penetration, Broadband Users, Dial-up vs Broadband splits, Service Revenues, ARPU, and Subscriptions by Technology Platform (xDSL, Cable,FTTx, and FWA / WiMax).

Apac broadband subscribers to hit 182 million this year

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Asia-Pacific’s fixed broadband subscribers are likely to grow 17.3 percent to reach 182 million users by the end of 2009, clocking estimated billings of $44.9 billion, a rise of 13.3 percent over 2008.

Even as mobile broadband grows in tandem, Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Adeel Najam expects fixed broadband uptake to continue. He attributes this to the various government initiatives in rolling-out their national broadband ambitions such as Malaysia’s high-speed broadband (HSBB) project, Australia’s national broadband network (NBN) and Singapore’s iN2015 masterplan. He also expects telcos in developing markets to continue deploying basic xDSL (digital subscriber line) infrastructure.

By next year when most of the government-initiated projects are earmarked for full-scale roll-out, broadband users in Asia-Pac are expected to breach the 200-million-mark closing the year 2010 at 212.6 million.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Asia-Pacific Fixed Broadband Market, finds that the broadband subscriber base in the region -- covering 14 Asia-Pac countries including Japan -- will grow at a CAGR of 14.1 percent annually (2009-2014) to reach 342.9 million subscribers by end-2014.

The same year, the region’s household broadband penetration would have risen to 37.2 percent, from only about 18 percent last year, with revenues estimated at close to $69 billion.

“The bulk of bandwidth growth and network roll-outs in the next few years will be driven by fibre-to-the-node deployments aided mainly by government spending on national high-speed broadband projects,” Najam says, adding that xDSL will however remain the dominant platform in developing markets.

According to Najam, “Consumer appetite for broadband will be spurred by the demand for high throughput value-added services such as IPTV and video-on-demand.”

He adds that services such as Web 2.0, social networking, file-sharing, online gaming, as well as falling PC prices and availability of low-cost netbooks have also added impetus towards broadband consumption.

In 2008, the top six Asia-Pac countries with the highest household broadband penetration rates were South Korea -- said to be one of the highest in the world -- at 92.8 percent, Hong Kong -- 85 percent, Singapore -- 78.5 percent, Taiwan -- 66 percent, Australia -- 63.7 percent, and Japan -- 62.7 percent.

The remaining eight markets have household broadband penetration rates of less than 60 percent.

By number of subscribers, in 2008 China had the most fixed broadband users with 83.4 million (53.8 percent of the region’s total subscriber base), followed by Japan with 30 million and South Korea with 15.5 million.

Looking forward, Najam dispels the threat of mobile broadband to fixed broadband services. He believes that both these access services need to co-exist, “In the age of convergence and multi-play services, both wireless and wireline broadband should be viewed as complementing technology to offer subscribers with blended services.

“While mobile broadband has significantly lower throughput than fixed access, it provides residential users with the convenience of ‘on-the-go’connectivity,” he adds.

North American DSL and CMTS shipments recover

UK: Ovum today announced its preliminary quarterly results for global 2Q09 DSL and CMTS port shipments.

“Continuing demand for downstream capacity contributed to strong growth in downstream CMTS port shipments in North America. We estimate that for the first time ever, more than half of ports shipped were downstream ports,” said Ovum Analyst Kamalini Ganguly. “Arris topped the CMTS market in volume for the first time.

2Q09 highlights
* DSLAM shipments’ increase versus 1Q09 = 10 percent
* DSLAM shipments’ decline versus 2Q08 = 19 percent
* CMTS shipments’ decline versus 1Q09 = 6 percent
* CMTS shipments’ decline versus 2Q08 = 39 percent

Alcatel-Lucent, which shipped 5.8 million DSL ports in 2Q09, remained in first place in the DSL market on a rolling 4Q volume basis with 32 percent share, followed by Huawei (28 percent), ZTE (16 percent), Nokia Siemens Networks (5 percent), Ericsson (5 percent), and UTStarcom (3 percent).

All the regions saw double-digit sequential growth in DSL shipments, with the exception of South and Central America. In the CMTS market, Cisco dropped to 50 percent rolling 4Q market share in terms of ports shipped, followed by Arris whose share jumped to 35 percent and Motorola whose share grew to 13 percent. Downstream ports contributed to more than 50 percent of CMTS ports shipped for the first time.

Asia Pacific broadband to grow 21 percent in 2009

BOSTON, USA: The Asia Pacific (APAC) broadband market ended 2008 with 158 million broadband subscriptions, and will grow an additional 21 percent in 2009, according to a report just published by analyst firm Strategy Analytics.

The report, “Asia Pacific Broadband Forecast: 1H’2009,” estimates that broadband subscriptions for the region will surpass 394 million by 2013.

“Broadband in APAC is really a tale of two regions,” said Ben Piper, Analyst and Director of the Strategy Analytics Multiplay Market Dynamics service.

“On one hand, highly developed markets, such as South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong, lead the world in broadband penetration and fiber deployment. Meanwhile, three of the world’s most populous countries, (China, India, and Indonesia), representing 40 percent of global population, have household broadband penetration rates below 21 percent.”

Household broadband penetration at the APAC regional level remains quite low at 17 percent; however this will reach 39 percent by 2013, according to the report.

“While DSL remains the dominant access technology in the region, it will increasingly give way to fiber and WiMax, which together will account for over 40 percent of all connections by 2013,” said David Mercer, Vice-President of the Strategy Analytics Digital Consumer Practice.

Converged services a natural play for telcos

SINGAPORE: Converged services have become one of the marketing strategies employed by service providers today to grow revenues and subscriber base, and reduce customer churn.

"Bundling two or more services such as fixed voice, broadband, mobile and pay TV into attractive price plans has proven to result in less customer churn than single-service offerings," says Frost & Sullivan senior industry analyst Kamlesh Kalwar. He cites Hong Kong's PCCW which has managed to keep churn rate below one percent since introducing its converged services.

Kalwar further reckons that single-service telco offerings may soon be a thing of the past as tomorrow's consumers are likely to demand fully converged services from a single provider as a result of changing lifestyles and technology convergence.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Asia-Pacific Converged Services Market Potential, reveals that approximately 20.8 percent of households across 14 Asia-Pacific countries subscribed to dual-, triple- and quadruple-play (quad-play) services in 2008 for total bundled billings of $58.7 billion. By 2014, residential bundled-service revenues are expected to hit $88.3 billion.

Dual-play services, typically fixed-line and broadband, are the most commonly contracted bundles at present, with 10.8 percent of residential users.

Triple-play services (fixed-line, broadband and TV) however are likely to see greater adoption in the longer term to account for 11.4 percent of residential subscribers in 2014; while dual-play subscriptions drop to 10.2 percent household penetration and quad-play (fixed-line, TV, broadband and wireless) expected to grow nearly two-fold to 4.9 percent.

Kalwar argues that three forms of convergence are driving the delivery of bundled or multiple services to a single user - convergence of networks, content and devices.

Network convergence: Thanks to IP (Internet protocol), existing networks are capable of delivering a multitude of services -- such as a broadband network enabling applications like Internet, TV and VoIP -- with just an incremental upgrade to the core network. Operators are banking on this opportunity to up-sell their services and increase average revenue per user (ARPU) and customer stickiness.

Content and device convergence: The increased mobility of present-day consumers dictates the need for multiple access points to the same content. Similarly, the sophistication of devices available today supports consumers' expectations for ubiquitous access to such content.

Given this, Kalwar believes that converged services present obvious benefits to both service providers and users, "Converged services is expected to be a critical strategy for communication service providers in the mid- to long-term.

"Apart from meeting customers' demands with attractive price points while maintaining ARPU and retaining customers, telcos are also able to roll-out loyalty programs to reward subscribers and offer one-stop customer service centres and consolidated monthly billings for users," he adds.

Kalwar cautions however that pricing alone is just part of the battle. "Quality of service, timeliness of market entry and [type of] content will also make or break an operator's converged offerings. StarHub, for example, has virtually cornered the pay TV market in Singapore with its exclusive content rights and early introduction of services," he says, adding however that content and broadcast regulations vary country to country, of course.

Growth despite recession proves people need benefits of broadband

SINGAPORE: Broadband has become a necessity for people around the planet –despite the economic downturn. That’s the message delivered in Singapore today by Broadband Forum Chief Operating Officer Robin Mersh.

Mersh was giving a keynote address at the giant CommunicAsia conference and exhibition in Singapore, where more than 2,000 exhibitors were gathered to discuss and debate the latest issues surrounding telecom and broadcast technology.

“Broadband is no longer a luxury in the home –- it is a necessity -– and we are seeing that despite everything going on in their lives, people are depending on their broadband,” he said.

“This is an extremely positive sign for the industry, although we must not be complacent and the next quarter’s market penetration figures will give us further evidence, or otherwise, of the rise of the broadband phenomenon.”

Mersh backed his view by highlighting the latest statistics for broadband and IPTV which were published earlier in the week. He pointed out that 20 countries had grown their broadband by 10 percent or more, with India and China particularly showing potential. IPTV’s growth to 24 million lines was also helping broadband reach the next level.

He explained that while new technologies were coming onstream to support broadband, DSL remained stable and ADSL2+ had in fact seen the highest technology increase of all the access options.

Broadband lines in the world are now approaching 430 million. India experienced the biggest growth percentage at 13.4, while China added 4.8 million lines, to top more than 88 million lines.

Mersh told the audience of top ranking telecommunications figures from across Asia that for fast broadband rollout and effective network management, operators needed three things -– a single architecture across all transport options, a single WAN management protocol and common Quality of Experience (QoE) measurement specifications.

“The consumer doesn’t care how the service is delivered –- they just want to know it’s dependable and that they can buy their service with confidence,” said Mersh.

He explained that the Forum, which has around 200 of the world’s top operators and equipment and chipset vendors among its membership, focused its work on three main areas.

The first was the network, which included core, access aggregation and last mile options. The second was management specifications, which focussed on operational excellence, and the final area was remote management of the user, which spanned from digital homes, offices and cell towers.

He also called for standards bodies to follow their initiative in co-operating among themselves and highlighted the work the Forum recently completed in cooperation with 3GPP and the Femto Forum, which resulted in the first industry standard for Femto Access Point management.

Wise broadband policies can create a win–win situation in developing countries

Comment by Daniel Jones, lead analyst of the Global Growth Markets research programme at Analysys Mason

LONDON, UK: In the last few years, the subject of the global digital divide has received a lot of attention from the telecoms industry. Much of this interest has focused on the role that mobile networks are playing to narrow the divide, as mobile penetration rates in developing markets have been growing strongly, while those in mature markets have saturated.

However, at the same time, there has been mass-market adoption of broadband in an increasing number of countries in the developed world, while take-up of broadband in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America has been negligible, causing the broadband access gap to widen considerably.

The need to address the widening gap between those with easy access to ICT and those without is recognised beyond the telecoms industry. The UN has included in its Millennium Development Goals (a series of targets for 2015 agreed at the Millennium Summit of world leaders), which include the eradication of extreme hunger and poverty, achievement of universal primary education and combating HIV/AIDS and malaria, the target: “In cooperation with the private sector, make available benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications technologies.”

Broadband has been singled out for particular attention in this context; a UN press release on its recent progress report highlighted the finding that developing countries “…have unprecedented access to new information and communication technologies, with over 77 percent of the population able to receive a mobile cellular telephone signal…

But the digital divide between developed and developing countries continues to widen for technologies that drive modern information sharing (such as broadband internet connection)."

A key question for the telecoms industry and for policy makers, therefore, is how to promote greater availability and higher take-up of broadband services in developing countries. This is not an easy question to answer, and no single set of solutions fits every country’s situation, but, as a first step, it is necessary to identify the obstacles to universal broadband provision.

On the demand side, the barriers to take-up of broadband in developing countries are: the fact that broadband services and computing equipment, such as PCs, are not affordable, unreliable electricity supplies and the paucity of local content. On the supply side, some of the limiting factors are: the shortage of and high price of international bandwidth, lack of incentives for operators to invest in rural roll-outs, limitations on access to spectrum and the lack of a supportive, reliable regulatory environment.

2Wire, Huawei and Thomson make major gains across broadband CPE segments

SCOTTSDALE, USA: 2Wire, Huawei and Thomson captured major market share gains in the 2008 broadband customer premise equipment (CPE) segments, according to In-Stat. The broadband CPE segments include cable and DSL modems, routers, Wi-Fi Aggregators, and residential gateways, with each company demonstrating unique gains.

2Wire stood out for their significant market share gains across the key residential gateway segment. 2Wire gained almost six percentage points in market share in the worldwide residential gateway market.

In the home Wi-Fi aggregator segment, which overlaps total broadband routers and gateways, 2Wire took over the number two position from Netgear, gaining 4.8 percentage points of share.

Huawei’s major accomplishment was in the worldwide DSL Modem Market, where it gained over ten percentage points. Huawei achieved an impressive unit growth rate of over 68 percent, compared to market-wide growth of just under 2 percent.

Meanwhile, Thomson saw the most broad-based share gains. They performed strongly across nearly all the segments that they compete in, making moderate market share gains in the total and E-MTA cable modems, Wi-Fi aggregators, and residential gateway segments. In addition, Thomson maintained their #1 market share position in the residential gateway market.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:
* Annual growth of residential gateway shipments plummeted in 2008 to only 0.5 percent, down from 2007’s heady growth of nearly 32 percent.
* Unit shipments of cable modems with an embedded multimedia terminal adapter (E-MTA) dropped to 15.2 million units in 2008.

Kyocera intros iBurst 3.9G mobile broadband wireless technology

KYOTO, JAPAN: Kyocera Corp. has introduced its iBurst system as a leading solution to comply with a variety of market demands for Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) in Latin American markets.

The iBurst system is standardized at ANSI and Recommendation ITU-R M.1801 as HC-SDMA, and forward-compatible with IEEE802.20 625k-MC.

Kyocera’s iBurst is a TDD/TDMA system with Adaptive-Array smart antenna technology that operates within a 5MHz bandwidth in the ranges of 1785-1805MHz, 1900-1920MHz and 2010-2025MHz. The Base Station delivers up to 24Mbps downlink and 8Mbps uplink, and the typical coverage is 3 to 5 km in radius. It supports non-line-of-sight mobile communications of data as well as voice even at traveling speeds of 100km/h.

By taking full advantage of iBurst’s cost effectiveness, and its functionality as the highest spectrally efficient option among MBWA systems, it has been commercially deployed since 2004 and there are currently 13 commercial networks in 12 countries. More than 10 operators are also in the process of launching iBurst service networks within the year 2009.

iBurst operators in serviced countries greatly appreciate the flexibility of iBurst applications to provide data and voice services in rural areas as well as high density metropolitan areas. Furthermore, iBurst subscribers are fully able to enjoy high speed internet with downlink speeds of up to 2Mbps, high quality VoIP and VPN services in fixed, portable and mobile environments with great satisfaction.

iBurst operators worldwide have formed the iBurst Association (iBA), a not-for-profit organization advocating the promotion and development of iBurst technology as a preferred MBWA solution.

China: Telecoms, mobile, broadband and forecasts

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "China - Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts" report to its offering.

The Chinese telecommunications market is the largest in the world. With the mobile sector still expanding at over 15 percent going into 2009, and the long-awaited licensing of 3G services completed after finalising the industry restructure, the market is poised for yet another boost amongst what is hoped to be a more level playing field.

The importance of the regulatory regime must not be underestimated in a market like China, where political and commercial considerations are closely intertwined. China's telecommunications industry experienced much disruption during 2008.

In early 2008, massive snow storms, the worst in five decades, caused widespread disruption to telecom services. The snow storms killed at least 60 people and left tens of millions to experience a cold, dark Lunar New Year holiday. In excess of 33 million fixed and mobile services were cut and direct economic losses incurred as a result of the fierce snowstorms.

Then, later in the year, a major earthquake struck near the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu. The 7.5 magnitude quake resulted in thousands being evacuated from buildings in Beijing, some 1,500km from the epicentre. These natural disasters tested the networks of the major telcos, not to mention their disaster recovery response times.

Despite these testing events, the market continued to experience healthy growth. Not even the global financial crisis could stall the profound growth that has been the phenomenon of the China market in the last decade.

The networks withstood the onslaught of the Olympic Games and although uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the international press and the media glare due to China's strict enforcement of Internet regulations, the country's networks were robust and successfully beamed coverage of the major sporting event worldwide.

China surpassed Japan in 2004 as the market with the second most broadband lines after the US. In mid-2008 China became the largest broadband market in the world, finally passing the US. Going into 2009, China's broadband subscriber population passed the 80 million milestone. China has also become the top DSL market in the world. Despite this huge subscriber base, penetration remains comparatively low, meaning there is still much room for growth.

CMAI signs MoU with Cambridge Wireless

N.K. Goyal is among my oldest friends, mentor and acquaintance in the Indian telecom industry. Yesterday afternoon, he alerted me about this significant development.

First, a bit about N.K. Goyal. He is currently the president, Communications & Manufacturing Association of India (CMAI), chairman Emeritus TEMA (Telecom Equipment Manufacturers' Association of India), Chairman CTIA, and Vice Chairman ITU APT India.

India has been focusing significantly on wireless broadband in order to bring the power of the internet to rural India, thereby fostering economic growth. To facilitate and make this a reality, the Communications & Manufacturing Association of India has signed an MoU with Cambridge Wireless to foster this aim.

You can read more of this at Business Weekly, UK.

Those of you interested in the Indian telecom industry should be aware that India already has over 400 million telecom subscribers and is targeted to cross the 650 million by 2012, with new subscribers joining at the rate of 10-15 million a month.

Thank you very much, Sir! Well done for keeping India's telecom flag flying high.

Embedded netbooks could blur broadband service boundaries

NEW YORK, USA: The growing popularity of netbooks and laptops with embedded broadband wireless modems could lead network operators to offer single-price broadband services that include both mobile and fixed connectivity, marking a significant shift in the way broadband services are used and sold, according to the latest report from Light Reading Insider.

The Netbook Effect: Remaking Broadband Price Structures identifies and analyzes key issues that will affect the embedded laptop and netbook market through 2010. It forecasts the adoption of these products and discusses barriers to and drivers of that adoption. This report also examines the competitive environment, such as pricing pressure on modem vendors and how embedded PCs will affect the wired broadband market.

"Until the past year or so, embedded laptops were aimed primarily at enterprises and business users, but with the arrival of embedded netbooks, the addressable market now includes consumers," says Tim Kridel, research analyst for Light Reading Insider.

"While the full impact of embedded PCs on broadband services is not likely to be felt over the next 12 to 18 months, network operators will have to respond with different service options as more of these devices are put into use," he added.

As embedded netbooks grow in popularity and accessibility, consumers will look for more choices from their broadband service providers, Kridel notes. "Operators that figure out how to offer service that cuts across fixed and mobile lines stand the best chance of succeeding with this emerging user group," he says. "The amazing growth of mobile data services driven by devices such as the BlackBerry and the iPhone, coupled with the arrival of higher-speed mobile data services, will likely spur a huge opportunity for operators that can adapt their services to fit user demands."

Key findings of The Netbook Effect: Remaking Broadband Price Structures include:
* About 3 million embedded laptops and netbooks were sold in 2008, with at least 4.5 million possible this year.
* Some laptop and netbook vendors say that up to 40 percent of their 2008 sales were embedded.
* Despite the growth of embedding, USB/PC card adapters are selling briskly and remain in the majority.
* Bundling wired/wireless broadband removes a major barrier to consumer adoption of embedded products.
* Competition and pricing pressure are fierce among makers of embedded modems.Embedded netbooks could blur broadband service boundaries.

Bharti Airtel, Alcatel-Lucent in managed services JV for broadband and telephone services

PARIS, FRANCE & NEW DELHI, INDIA: Bharti Airtel, Asia’s leading integrated telecom service provider, and Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that they have formed a joint venture to manage Bharti Airtel’s pan-India broadband and telephone services and help Airtel’s transition to next generation networks.

Under the joint venture, Alcatel-Lucent will design, plan, deploy, optimize and manage Bharti Airtel’s broadband and telephone network across India. A new legal entity is being formed which will be operated by Alcatel-Lucent.

Manoj Kohli, CEO & Joint Managing Director, Bharti Airtel said: “This joint venture is another step towards Bharti Airtel’s vision to continuously redefine and deliver the benchmarks of customer experience. We will leverage Alcatel-Lucent’s global expertise in IP transformation and network management while allowing us to focus on customer delivery and market growth. It will also help us accelerate performances as we migrate to next generation networks for our broadband and telephone customers, opening the door to advanced services and applications.”

“We appreciate the opportunity that Bharti Airtel has given us to demonstrate our worldwide expertise in network transformation, managed network services and IP transformation”, said Ben Verwaayen, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent. “The expansion of our relationship is drawn on our strengths as a global services player, ready to partner with innovative customers in their business transformation plans,” he added.

This managed services partnership will include all end-to-end activities -- service rollout, installation and fault repair, service continuity and transformation. It will support Bharti Airtel’s transformation to next generation networks, offering advanced services like high-speed internet, triple play, media-rich VAS, MPLS, VPN for both retail and business customers. The partnership will also drive optimal capital investment and increase operational efficiency by moving voice and data traffic onto a single, 'packetized' infrastructure.

Welcome to PC's Telecom Blog!

Welcome to PC's Telecom Blog!

Hi friends, I've been thinking about adding a telecom blog to my network for a very long time! The reason being, I started my career in electronics and telecom back in 1989.

I had the privilege of being part of Asian Sources Telecom Products -- a site, which I managed and built, with the help of my team and colleagues at Asian Sources Media, and later, Global Sources. Later, I moved on to Wireless Week, USA, as Asia Pacific Editor for the Asian Edition.

Back in India, I managed Convergence Plus for a short while, before launching four sites for CIOL in 2004 -- Mobility, Networking, Storage and Security.

Given this background in telecommunications, it is apt for me to start a blog on this subject as well. Telecom has been my forte, and well, it is a subject that has also won me four awards in technology journalism, while at Global Sources.

Again, this blog has been spun out off my award winning blog! That blog remains unchanged, and will continue to carry top-quality, world class content!

This blogs will now include specific blog posts related to telecommunications, as well as press releases, industry updates, new products, features, statistics, etc. It will cover wireless, wireline, broadband, networking, optical networking, Test & Measurement, etc.

Thanks for your kind support as always. Suggestions for improvements are always welcome! :)

Broadband hasn't grown as expected in India

Yes, I believe so! The numbers, if one were to contend with those alone, DO NOT meet the expectations. Broadband was and is considered to be the new paradigm of India. However, are we anywhere near whatever growth we have been expecting? Let's see the stats for the various telecom segments.

According to the statistics made available by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the total number of telephone subscribers was 232.87 million at the end of July 2007, and the overall teledensity had increased to 20.52!

In the wireless segment, 8.06 million subscribers were added in July 2007 and the total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and WLL (F)) base was 192.98 million. The wireline segment subscriber base stood at 39.89 million, with a decline of 0.20 million in July 2007.

And what about broadband? For broadband (≥256Kbps downloads), the total broadband connections in the country had reached only 2.47 million by the end of July 2007. In fact, during July 2007 there was an addition of 0.05 million connections!

Let's go back a few months! Venkat Kedalya of Convergent Communications had pointed out in an article to CIOL that India was nowhere on course to reach a target of 9 million broadband subscribers by this year! India has a target of achieving 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010, which now seems to be highly ambitious and well, unachievable!

Allocation of frequencies for BWA (broadband wireless access) is the immediate need of the moment. There is a need to look at WiMax and broadband over powerline (BPL) as far as technology is concerned. Some folks have entered the IPTV domain, so hopefully, we will get to see some content over broadband.

Even TRAI has urged the government to boost broadband growth. One of its suggestions has been to ask BSNL and MTNL to adopt a franchisee model so that local players may use their copper cables and offer high-speed Internet services. Decisions need to be taken for allocating spectrum for WiMax as well as making the National Internet Exchange of India more effective.

TRAI said: "Only 0.47 million broadband subscribers have been added in first six months of 2007, which is far below the growth trend required to achieve broadband policy targets. This necessitated an analysis of regulatory and policy frameworks, and to formulate new approach necessary for rapid roll-out of broadband in the country."

TRAI also accepts that while the growth of Internet subscribers was satisfactory, we are seriously lagging behind as far as broadband is concerned. It adds: "The government should ensure availability of more number of Ku-band transponders to roll out broadband services through DTH platform and utilize Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund to provide subsidy for providing broadband services through satellite in remote and hilly areas."

I'm not really sure how all of this will help. You do need at least a PC to access the Internet services. Am not sure how many folks are still willing to invest in home PCs and broadband, given that watching TV is a favorite pastime. Broadband over cable TV has not been a success either. What are we doing about this?