Fast Net News, DSL Prime, DOCSIS Report

August 30 update Verizon and the cable association have been sparring in D.C., but private talks are continuing.

June 19th Green came to Las Vegas and looked an audience of telco guys in the eyes. The head of CableLabs said “No longer are we telephone people and cable people.... It looks to me as if we are all, basically, in the same kind of business, competing fiercely with each other to provide the best possible telecom services to our customers.” If we had a broadband TV standard that worked on both our networks, the TV manufacturers would support it strongly. Update: Soon after, Verizon protested to the FCC that Tru2way discriminated against FIOS, which doesn't have the same return path. Kyle McSlarrow of NCTA disingenuously suggested Verizon just put a set top in between. The prime purpose of Tru2way is to eliminate the set top. Both Verizon and McSlarrow spoke of incorporating Ethernet in every set as a compromise. Most TVs in Japan already have Ethernet ports at modest additional cost.

There are natural intersections between your industries and ours,” Green concluded. “I truly think we could benefit from a cooperative approach.” Tru2Way could be marginalized, Sandy Teger warns, adding "The industry should move quickly to open the platform to encourage the development of innovative services." Separate, DSL and cable  cut the TV market in half and drive up costs on our televisions and stereos coming from from Asia. After years of work, TVs are becoming interoperable with the cable system without a set top box.

Everyone in cable has been working to eliminate unnecessary equipment and cost. Green explained, “Tru2way [once called OCAP] solves this problem via a software or middleware abstraction solution. On the network side, the middleware interfaces with any number of existing cable video networks. On the other side there is a, single, open, standardized middleware interface that permits developers a common framework for their applications. Write once/run anywhere has now been achieved. This interface will provide the platform for all two-way interactive video services and applications. It supports the retail sale of television sets and set-top boxes that now can be transported from one cable provider to another.” He added, “Let me emphasize that this platform is based on an international ITU-T standard. The write once/run anywhere capability actually applies worldwide. This makes tru2way compatible with the European MHP standard as well as interactive TV standards used in Asia. It is compatible with the ATSC, ACAP broadcast interactive standard in the U.S. ... “The bottom line here is that tru2way is open; it is not exclusive to cable.”

Carol Wilson of Telephony reported Green's suggestion that the ITU be used as neutral ground, although ITU has internal issues to solve. The meetings need to be open, involve civil society deeply, and welcome leadership from the people whose lives are being changed. It's long past the time that companies and mercantile/corporate governments set the rules. While a Dick Green or a Tom Starr bring a great deal to the process, without Asia and Latin America we can't set a world standard.