YAHNS: Yet another home networking standard.
You have WiFi, MIMO, MOCA, HPNA/HomePlug-AV and now get ready for TVnet 2X, a new home networking standard being promoted by Coaxsys and chip maker, ST Microelectronics. Actually it is an update to an old standard being pushed by Coaxsys called TVnet. The new standard doubles the speed and can now push data using ethernet-over-coaxial cables that are already pre-installed inside many of the newer homes at speeds of around 200 megabits per second.
In addition to meeting Telcos’ need for IPTV networking, TVnet 2X will enable cable MSOs to deploy whole-home, networked PVRs and other IP services,” said Christos Lagomichos, Group Vice President and General Manager of ST’s Home Entertainment Division. “Coaxsys’ 200Mbps technology will ensure that operators will be able to deliver any number of HD video streams and connect any Ethernet device.”
As I had noted in my story for Business 2.0, the big bandwidth opportunity is in the home. Robert Young wrote about it earlier. The Diffusion Group of Plano, Texas forecasts that, “about 47 million U.S. homes will have networking capability within five years.”
Still, this technology could face challenges. The phone operators are pushing HPNA/Home Plug, while the cable MSOs are pushing MOCA. Consumers on the other hand are happy going with the cheaper-by-the-minute wireless products. It is still not clear what standard is going to really take off, as their is a lot of posturing from all camps.
I wonder if technology like this is in the new DirecTV (and others) single DVR with multiple player products. They seem to only communicate via coax and the current multi-switch could be redesigned to be an ehternet switch as well.
Note that Verizon has already indicated that their FiOS roadmap will use MOCA, not HPNA.
http://www.nyquistcapital.com/2005/12/12/fios-roadmap-info/
If this does catch on, probably not much effect quite a time (unfortunately).
Compared to any other part of telecoms /cable infrastructure, the Access network is the slowest to change. There area lots of technologies that are floated, and few swim (e.g. Broadband over Powerline…)
It is the most price sensitive (this is the single biggest factor), and needs to be simple to operate and install / maintain (read mature). The adoption cycle is long… think how long DSL took to get traction and widespread deployment.
Other take – Longer term (5 years +) it is going to be much harder for the ILECs to avoid becoming bit pipes (there is no need for QOS as the amount of bandwidth increases). So their current noise about differential charging is going to look sillier as the amount of bandwidth increases.