verizon

Broadband Poker and Video

Doug Mohney — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:50:35 -0400

NXTcomm08, Las Vegas--It's Vegas, so I have to throw in gambling analogies.

Verizon Communications has announced it is boosting speeds for its FiOS services, with the lowest-end service moving to 10 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream, with the middle going to 20 Mbps/5Mbps and the top tier going to 50 Mbps/20 Mbps for around $140 a month; and, all will be available in all the company's markets.

Note that Verizon tells you downloading a 5 GB file, (4.7GB is a DVD worth of materials, FYI), takes 13.3 minutes. No mention of bandwidth caps. Hmm. And the company has already successfully trialed 100 Mbps which means you could download a full DVD in a little over 7.5 minutes. Not that they want to discuss that out loud at this time, mind you.

In a keynote address, Verizon President and COO Denny Strigl got touchy about the U.S. being called on the carpet for lagging broadband penetration and how their network has been built out without government intervention.

Did I miss a poll this week noting Obama is running ahead of McCain? Did I mention that Obama donors include Reed "I want to have government bankroll 100 Mbps to everyone's home" Hundt? Did I mention Democrats are the party most associated with increased government regulation?

During my meetings at NXTcomm08, I walked through scenarios on Net Neutrality with a vendor. My take is very nuanced. Cable companies are going under the gun in areas where they have to compete with FiOS (and most likely Clearwire's WiMAX if they can manage to deploy in any short order). In order to compete with FiOS's (ultimately) 100 Mbps speeds, cable will have to upgrade their speeds to 100 Mbps or better so all this talk of bandwidth caps goes away in such areas, just like limits on dial-up WENT AWAY once better technology came along.

And if cable companies don't upgrade speeds, they're going to be run over by FiOS and/or WiMAX.

A number of companies have built online video business models predicated upon cheap unmetered bandwidth, so NetFlix cannot be happy with bandwidth limiting talk and if it isn't working out SLA/QoS deals with broadband carriers, well, I'd be real surprised. Otherwise, the company would be gambling with its future.

The biggest poker game is going on between Verizon and the phone companies. AT&T doesn't even have table stakes until it decides to more aggressively deploy fiber to the home, rather than to the neighborhood and hoping copper DSL speeds will be good enough. How long can cable companies sit on plant until they upgrade from 40Mbps DOCSIS 2.0 to 200 Mbps DOCSIS 3.0?

Shuffle up and deal!

- Doug

Verizon Goes Online With Starz

Doug Mohney — Thu, 29 May 2008 22:32:55 -0400

Verizon is now offering the Starz Play online video subscription service to its 8.5 million high-speed broadband customers, giving the former more content for DSL and FiOS and the latter another distribution channel.

The package will cost Verizon subscribers $5.99 per month for on-demand access to more than 1,000 movies and 2,500 videos of extreme sports, anime and concerts. Subscribers can download and view an unlimited number of videos on their computers and also can watch a live stream of the East Coast feed of the Starz television channel.

Vongo, a similar service by Starz, has had problems attracting customers. Vongo drew only 315,000 monthly visitors in April according to ComScore. In addition, Starz affiliate partners in the cable TV, satellite and telecom world were Not Pleased, seeing Vongo as a competitive threat.

Starz now joins Netflix and Amazon.com in this week's online video announcements, leaving all of them to compete with Apple's iTunes and plenty of other players in the for-pay content arena.

For more:
- LA Times covers Starz offering online video service through Verizon

Related articles:
Starz adapts Vongo for carrier networks
Sezmi aims to redefine TV service models
FiOS TV breaks through one million user mark

Déjà vu and thrills in NYC

Doug Mohney — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:14:59 -0400

I went to some of the first Streaming Media shows waaaay back in the '90s, so it was a sobering reality check to drop in a decade later at Streaming Media East in New York this week to walk the floor and sit in on the presentations.

Hearing P2P (well P4P) being called the potential savior of online video was definitely an eye-opener. Enterprises running their own networks, such as Wachovia and Bank of America don't have to be convinced that P2P is a win for distributing video throughout the company; they're doing it today without breaking a sweat.

Having a Verizon spokesperson talk about dramatic network improvements in hops (from about five to under one) and download speeds just by describing their network architecture in an open fashion at a relatively abstract level to a third-party vendor (Pando Networks) and then adding software is seriously game-changing. Comcast is already working with Pando and also hedging their bets by investing in GridNetworks, so there's definitely more than smoke and mirrors going on here. If Comcast can keep all that P2P traffic in bounds in their network and mange it more efficiently than the "Grab it from wherever" philosophy of some existing P2P schemes, what's not to like?

I'm also sold on the idea of doing short-form video segments. Sometime in the next couple of weeks I'm going to start doing "Two minute drills" in front of my Flip Video camera and uploading them for people to look at. Once I get a couple of weeks posted, then I'm going to start looking for a couple of good product placement deals (Asus EEE PC 900 or HP 2133 Mini Note PC? Coke or Bacardi? Coke and Bacardi?) and see what happens from there.

- Doug

P2P: Friend of Carriers, Savior of Online Video?

Doug Mohney — Thu, 22 May 2008 22:35:57 -0400

Streaming Media East, NYC--Over the past two months, peer-to-peer (P2P) networking has gone from the source of all evil to being a miracle cure for distributing video if a panel of speakers at Streaming Media East are to be believed. It won't be IPTV, but P2PTV, if service providers and P2P companies can cooperate together.

Currently, "closed" P2P networks account for at least three-fourths of upstream bandwidth on the Internet and at least half the downstream bandwidth of service providers, said Marty Lafferty, CEO of the Distributed Computing Industry Association. The problems have resulted from closed P2P schemes working to evade ISP monitoring and network optimization efforts.

Lafferty says the sea change has occurred by combining openness to P2P networking, allowing carriers to see what sort of traffic is going on and enabling them to fine tune network transfers to reduce router hop count--how far you have to move traffic--and keep copying local rather than crossing service provider boundaries.

P4P--Proactive network Provider Participation for P2P--technology has already demonstrated drastic improvements in bandwidth and network utilization. Verizon testing with Pando Networks earlier this year demonstrated bandwidth usage decreasing more than 50 percent. Other benefits included faster download speeds for users and much shorter router hops to move data (from an average of five hops to less than one). Verizon is a believer and says P4P technology can help scale their network and help deliver more video.

Comcast will be triaing Pando's technology later this year and has also invested in Seattle-based GridNetworks, a startup that delivers high-definition video using P2P technology.

For more:
- Lafferty's P2P presentation slides from Streaming Media East

Related articles:
500 GB of Free Content Delivery; Video Local
Service providers embrace P2P solutions
Comcast, Pando work on P2P 'Bill of Rights'