Heard on the Net

News about People and Companies influencing The Broadband Home

Briefly Noted: Updates, Observations and Trends

Each month, we collect miscellaneous happenings, studies, trends or observations you might have missed. This month's briefs focus on FTTH in the US and global broadband growth.

"Draft 802.11n"--On Track for Wi-Fi Certification

The Wi-Fi Alliance and the IEEE task group have set a common path toward an agreed standard and interoperability testing. Certified interoperable "draft 802.11n" products are expected to reach the market this summer. This should end the consumer confusion caused by the many incompatible "draft n" devices that flooded the market last year

Powerline Networking--War of the Standards

While high-speed wireless networking is moving rapidly to fully-interoperable products, powerline networking seems to be going in the opposite direction. Three entrenched groups with comparable but non-interoperable product lines are coming to market simultaneously. The products appear attractive, but it's hard to see how consumers can sort through the conflicting claims, and nearly impossible for them to figure out what will work with what.

Home Gateway Initiative

We recently met with Paolo Pastorino to learn about the current status of the Home Gateway Initiative (HGI). We think it's well worth watching.

Your Voice -- Readers Comments

One reader wrote to tell us about municipal networks in the Netherlands.

Upcoming Conferences

We hope to see some of you at Cable Show '07 in Las Vegas on May 7-9.