Viodi View Menu

Interested in Sponsoring the Viodi View? Send an email to: sponsor@viodi.com

Please forward this free publication to anyone you know who is involved in some way with independent telephone companies.

Mission of the Viodi View:

In this on-line publication, we share our analysis, opinions and direction on the interactive television news and views that we believe will be of interest and use to our friends associated directly or indirectly with independent telephone companies. For more information as to the various ways Viodi works with independent telephone companies, please go to http://www.viodi.com/alliance/

Disclaimer:

The Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] and its associates used their best efforts in collecting and preparing the information published herein. However, the Viodi View [Viodi, LLC] does not assume, and hereby disclaims, any and all liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.

All displayed trademarks, logos and service marks are the property of their respective owners. © 2005Viodi, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
5255 Stevens Creek, #127 Santa Clara, CA 95051

Viodi View Newsletter - August 31st, 2005

Indie Telco Local Content Workshop Advertisement

By Ken Pyle, ken.pyle@viodi.com, Managing Editor, Viodi View

• Wild Hare Scheme or WildBlue
• The Kino-Telecom Connection
• IP Video @ Telecom 05 Preview
• The IPTV Market According to Parks Associates
• Mediacom and CenturyTel Bundling It Out in Missouri
• Some Gossip for Independent Telcos
• Video IPOD or Video ARCHOS
• Corrections and Follow-up
• Krazy Ken's Korner - How Chair-Noble Got Its Name

At one time, sometime in the last century, vacations used to be synonymous with recharge. People actually went on vacation to forget about work. Employers believed that workers who took a well deserved break would come back refreshed and brimming with new productivity. It used to be pretty easy to get away as the cost of staying connected to the workplace was prohibitive and the options for connecting were very limited. The class of 2009 may find this hard to believe, but it actually used to cost a great deal of money to make a long distance call.

One of the first things I noticed about the houseboat was DirecTV satellite dish pointing towards the heavens (interestingly, it was DISH Network’s service). Upon boarding the boat, I was struck by a home entertainment center which was more modern than the 1980s vintage equipment I have at home. Complementing the video service was my not so trusty cell phone service. The one thing that was missing was Internet access. Actually, I was relieved the cell phone service was not so good and that the Internet access was non-existent, as I am a weak person and knew I would be tempted to connect with the wired (or wireless world) if these tools were available.

For better or worse, one of my houseboating friends had a cell phone equipped with 2.5G and blue-tooth. With his blue-tooth, enabled lap-top, he was soon connecting to the Internet at twice, dial-up speeds. I looked on at my friend in a mix of pity and envy as he proceeded to download 150 emails that first day. I felt proud of my self-restraint as I made it through a day without succumbing to this wireless Internet temptation. By day 2, we were lamenting how we could have brought a Wi-Fi access point and set up a mobile Internet café. By the end of Day 2, I was like an addict in search of his drug and was busy downloading and responding to my web mail via my friend’s computer.

Wild Hare Scheme or WildBlue

By day 3, we were scheming of ways to improve the houseboat Internet experience. Speed and sharing were the two big improvements we decided we need for the next trip. At some point, it struck me that this would be the perfect WildBlue application. WildBlue is the recently launched, high speed Internet via Satellite that is reasonably affordable and is adding 1,000 connections a week. This could present itself as an interesting opportunity for independent telcos, as house boating lakes are quite often in locales served by independent telcos and the WildBlue service. We figured there must be between 400 to 500 rental houseboats in a place like Lake Shasta. At $50 per month, this could represent a $20,000 to $25,000 per month opportunity.

This really is not such a crazy idea, as there is a rumor that John Malone’s sailboat was an alpha test site for the WildBlue service. Granted, the Internet service might only work when the boat is beached on the shoreline and not moving, but that is how house boats spend the majority of their time. There is precedence for independent telcos being involved in such ventures, as tiny Beehive Telephone in Utah was the only telephone company that would consider providing telephone service to the remote marinas of Lake Powell. The addition of high-speed Internet access would be a logical next step to the houseboat experience.

The Kino Telecom Connection

IP Video @ Telecom 05 Preview:

One of the activities that Viodi is involved with is helping to produce the IP Video track at Telecom 05. We have sessions dealing with peer to peer technologies and services, HDTV, on-demand success, IPTV standards, consumers as producers, operator success stories and IPTV as an interactive edge. The moderators of these panels, which include, Paul Bertino of Hickory Tech, Allison Dollar of the Interactive Television Alliance, Steve Hawley of Advanced Media Strategies, Leon Hofer of Iowa Network Services and Marty Lafferty of the DCIA, are busy helping to shape and finalize their particular sessions. More information will follow in subsequent issues.

The IPTV Market According to Parks Associates
by Steve Hawley of Advanced Media Strategies

On August 25th, Parks Associates held the Webcast "The Telcos Strike Back:
The Outlook for IPTV." Unlike so many of the research reports on IPTV these
days, this one focused mainly upon the consumer. Parks surveyed more than 2,000 consumers in US Internet households and concluded that while consumers taking premium channnels increased from 22% to 28% from 2004 to 2005, VOD subscribers nearly doubled, from 9% to 15%. This led Parks to conclude that there is an increasing trend toward "everything on demand."

The Parks research also suggests that telcos are more likely to capture
subscribers if they better understand the demographic and psychographic
characteristics of their consumers. Parks researchers surveyed about basic TV features, communications services, content, interactive services and personalization. Not only did they identify four distinct types of media consumers but they also demonstrated how different service bundles appeal differently to different consumer groups.

Armed with an understanding of these groups, the Telco can tailor and market its service offerings to each individual group. The researchers also pointed out how the consumer profiles and preferences differed from country to country by comparing US consumers to those in Spain and Italy

To satisfy those with a hunger for forecasts, Parks predicts there will be 21.7 million IPTV subscribers by the end of the year 2009. Asia/Pacific is expected to have the largest percentage of Telco IPTV subscribers, followed by Europe. The US is lowest for two reasons: first, because of the earlier and more aggressive IPTV investments outside the US, and second, because cable is such a dominant competitor within the US.

[Thanks Steve for the report.]

Mediacom and CenturyTel Bundling It Out in Missouri

Good article that appeared a few weeks ago, but did not seem to appear in any of the usual online trade publications, dealt with the triple play competition between Mediacom and CenturyTel in Columbia, Missouri. CenturyTel is using Dish Network as their video solution. The article makes the point that Mediacom will be rolling out telephony to all of its customer base by the end of 2006. This should be of interest to any independent telco that shares a footprint with Mediacom.

Some Gossip for Independent Telcos:

Click here to read some observations that independent telcos will find of interest. One must be a Club Viodi member to view these juicy tidbits. Club.viodi membership is only open to independent telcos and is made available at the sole discretion of Viodi, LLC. To obtain a user ID and password, please contact us at clubviodi@viodi.com.

Video IPOD or Video ARCHOS

Ironic that with all of the buzz and rumors that Apple will soon announce a video iPod, that ARCHOS and CinemaNow beat them to the punch. Industry visionary and Myrio founder Tony Atwater sat in the Viodi View offices a few years ago and talked about just such a service. This has some interesting potential as both a portable DVR, as well as device that has the potential to make Internet video easily accessible to TV viewers. Click here for the full release.

Corrections and Follow-up

In the last issue of the Viodi View, Bob Treadway’s methodology of predicting future outcomes was mislabeled as a “Cone of Uncertainty”, instead of “Cone of Certainty”. I am really not certain if it matters, as both describe a range of possible outcomes.

The last issue of the Viodi View discussed San Jose State University’s new dormitories. The Fiber to the Washing Machine feature that was mentioned in the article seemed to strike a nerve, as it was picked up on a DSL Reports blog. There were some pretty funny comments that can be found by clicking here. I especially like the comment asking what happens if the washing machine gets a virus (maybe it spews spam on your clothes)? Click here to see this blog....

Krazy Ken’s Korner: How Chair-Noble Got Its Name

As a veteran of countless houseboat trips, I could probably write a booklet on the do’s and don’ts of houseboating. In fact, I came close to creating this booklet ten years ago when I authored an 11 page trip report that documented my adventures with a group of friends at that houseboating nirvana known as Lake Powell. All was well on the lake, but, as we found out, not everything was well with our sewage-challenged house boat. Read on to see how the house boat we lovingly called the ‘tilt’in hilton’ lived up to its name and why we had to invent something called Chair-Noble.

Excerpted from an October, 1995 Houseboat Trip Report

Our story started out innocently enough when we pulled into port at the "Dangling Rope" marina. We needed to replenish important supplies, dump trash and empty our sewage. Although none of us had emptied sewage before, we felt qualified since we seemed to deal with this sort of thing all of the time in our regular jobs. We should have been suspicious as other boats docked, pumped and left, while we were still pumping our boat clean. After an hour or so of pumping, we ignored the indications that the houseboat was still full of waste and all pumping activities were halted. At approximately thirteen hundred hours, we headed off to the Rainbow Bridge National Monument.

Pumping Out the Houseboat - Don't Try this at Home

Fast-forward to the next day, when we were docked at what will become known as Honey Bucket Harbor. Both toilets had plugged up and, even worse, literally started to rear their ugly heads. Drastic measures were needed and were taken. Of course the first thought was to plunge the toilets to make sure the pipes leading to holding tanks were not clogged. The bad news was that we didn't have a plunger.

Several suggestions as to how to pump the toilets, including siphoning, were given. Finally, the clever use of a water-pump squirt gun allowed me to pump the toilets to an acceptable level. Because of my youth and inability to say no, I was selected for the honor of dumping the honey bucket.

I was later given the honor of digging the houseboat trip's first latrine. While I was digging the hole in a secluded spot in the woods (OK, behind the one lone bush at Lake Powell), a few of my house boating colleagues (names not given to protect the innocent) were fabricating a toilet seat out of one of the deck chairs.

The site of our latrine was aptly named "Chair-Noble". This name was chosen as it represented several things that made our latrine special; 1) "Chair" referring to the specially modified chair that protected our seats, 2) Chernobyl, which refers to the nuclear power plant that was buried and sealed for 30 years, 3) every noble King needs a throne.

Viodi View Subscribe

Privacy Policy

IP Video @ SC What You Missed

Listen to the audio for all of the presentations from the 40+ speakers at the IP Video @ Supercomm conference.  This CD-ROM includes the indexed presentations. Click here to see the contents.  Contact Sean Sullivan of USTA at 202 326 7260 to purchase this CD. 

Independent Local Content- Click Here to Learn More

Network PVRs Are Desired, But Operators Have Doubts

Click Here to Get the Report