In the midst of a wave of telecom provider mergers, the industry’s tech suppliers are getting squeezed, a development that will doubtless spur a echo-round of telecom vendor mergers. During the industry’s trade show TelecomNext held in Las Vegas, the exhibitors on the floor, most of which were tech providers, could talk about nothing else.
Now, word comes that two of the top telco tech suppliers, Lucent and Alcatel, are in merger discussions, with a potential $33 billion deal in the offing, according to the Wall Street Journal. This news follows a disputed article in LightReading suggesting that Lucent and Nokia, among other players, are bidding to buy top telco tech vendor Siemens Communications Group.
Siemens executives bluntly deny they are preparing to sell out to Lucent, Nokia or anybody else, but do admit they’ve held discussions with a lot of rivals about how to best align forces to deal with the consolidating telco business, discussions they claim every tech vendor is holding. Whatever the case may be, there’s no denying that a round of consolidation is in order for the vendors who supply the shrinking pool of telecom providers.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:08 PM | Print | Comments (0)
Courtesy of Good Morning Silicon Valley, this item from SmartHouse that confirms what many already know in their bones to be true: Apple is going to add voice functionality to the iPod. In other words, an iPod phone is on the way.
Taiwanese phone maker BenQ said that Apple is soliciting bids on the phone’s manufacturer (although BenQ won’t be one of the bidders) and that rival tech supplier Hon Hai Precision is slated to be the front-runner for supplying the (presumably VoIP) technology to Apple. With Apple’s iPod sales track record (almost 50 million to date) and a bigger screen video iPod ready for release, the inclusion of wireless VoIP technology in Apple’s amazing little device will catapult the Cupertino, CA-based company into some unknown level of communications industry hotness.
Just when Apple plans to debut the voice-enabled device is unclear. The article cites one source as saying it might be introduced within a couple of months, but other sources cited say the iPod phone won’t appear for another year.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 2:40 PM | Print | Comments (1)
In a move no doubt engineered by the cable industry, two leading members of the Congressional Black Caucus have registered their objections to the phone companies’ seeming success in gaining favorable franchising rights in upcoming House telecom reform legislation. Congressmen Bobby Rush (D-IL) and Congressman Ed Towns (D-NY) sent a letter today to Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), ranking member of that committee, saying that any telecom legislation should include anti-discrimination provisions that bar video providers from hand-picking only the most lucrative communities in which to launch competitive video services.
In the letter, the two members state:
Accordingly we urge you to ensure that any legislation you propose guarantee that Americans are not discriminated against, on the basis of race, color, national origin or income of the residents of a community, in how and where new services and technologies are deployed…In defining the scope of the non-discrimination provision, it is important that Congress require that non-discrimination apply not to just a small number of communities that a provider may self-select but rather to the entire footprint of a provider.
Cable’s representatives are calling this letter a “big blow” to the telcos’ efforts to gain the right to hand-pick only the best communities for video deployments. Although that spin overstates the case, it does seem that the telcos are now on the defensive and will probably have to justify their right to hand-pick service areas…justification that will be hard to sell given that there’s no denying that most of the areas that phone companies wish to service with video are upper-income and non-minority.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:43 AM | Print | Comments (0)
The New York Times’ David Pogue has this piece today about how SlingMedia’s place-shifting SlingBox technology is now available on mobile devices, a development that “boggles” the mind.
Pogue is clearly taken with the technology, which used to be limited to laptops but now enables consumers to watch their subscription and PVR video choices anywhere they go via handhelds or cell phones.
Today is another milestone in society’s great march toward anytime, anywhere TV. Starting today, Slingbox owners can install new player software on Windows Mobile palmtops and cellphones, thereby eliminating even the laptop requirement.
Customers must first buy the SlingBox at a price of around $250. To get the SlingBox technology on a mobile device, users have to download an installer, which is free for a period of time and then will be priced at $30.
The video is accessible through “tiny tappable on-screen controls” that enable users to tune into their home TV set-ups. It’s clear, as I’ve said before, that SlingMedia’s place-shifting technology (along with other systems that accomplish similar effects) will, sooner or later, inject another radical shift into the TV business, blurring even further the lines between “local” and non-local programming and, in all probability, angering the tradtional media distributors who don’t know quite how to sue SlingMedia on copyright grounds.
This shift only accelerates now that the SlingBox is available on mobile devices. As Pogue says
The Slingbox and its simple, satisfying new cellphone/palmtop player join those portable personal-video options. It seems clear that along with traditional TV schedules and traditional TV channels, the next victim of high-tech progress may be the traditional TV couch.
Update: The Washington Post’s Rob Pegararo has this upbeat review of the mobile SlingBox technology today. The headline says it all: “Slingbox Video Streaming Not Perfect, but Remarkable.”
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:10 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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