The advent of smart grid technology has in recent years energized and transformed a staid, conservative electrical power market, and telecommunications have played an integral role in the process. Less than 4% of the global installed base of 1.5 billion electricity meters could be considered “smart” as of 2008. Four years later that percentage has increased to more than 18% and is forecast to surpass 55% by 2020, according to a new report from Pike Research.
U.S. Smart Grid Meter Growth Has Already Peaked, Sharp Declines to Follow
Posted by: Steve Senne | May 7th, 2012 | No Comments »
Wireless Economic Impact: Nearly 4 Million Jobs, $146B in GDP
Posted by: Mike Boehne | May 4th, 2012 | No Comments »
It should come as no surprise that the wireless industry is an engine of U.S. economic growth. Just how much so? Well, conducting an in-depth, independent study, Recon Analytics found that the wireless industry supported some 3.8 million jobs and added some $146 billion to U.S. GDP in 2011.
IEEE Approves One New Smart Grid Standard, Three in the Pipeline
Posted by: Steve Senne | April 23rd, 2012 | No Comments »
The IEEE today announced the introduction of a new industry standard and the launch of three new standards-development activities, “all designed to enhance the communications and distribution-automation capabilities of the smart grid globally.”
The IEEE-SA working group’s IEEE 159.1-2012 — “Standards for Testing and Performance for Optical Ground Wire (OPGW)” is being used in smart grid deployments to provide both grounding capabilities for transmissions lines and communications back to utility systems such as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), the IEEE explains.
4G Beginning to Take Hold, 87 Million Devices Scheduled to Ship in 2012
Posted by: Steve Senne | April 20th, 2012 | No Comments »
4G subscribership is poised for take-off in 2012, as vendors ship a range of new 4G mobile devices, including USB dongles, smartphones, tablets, portable 4G hotspots and wireless broadband CPE (customer premises equipment), according to a new report from ABI Research.
Will Tablets Catch On in Rural Areas?
Posted by: Mike Boehne | April 19th, 2012 | No Comments »
Urbanites and suburbanites have been primarily responsible for the explosive growth in the use of media tablets. In contrast, tablets have been comparatively slow to catch on in rural areas, held back by lack of awareness and availability, their relatively high price tag and a lag in higher speed wireless networks, according to new research from iGR.
Though just 2% of US tablet sales took place in rural markets in 2011, iGR forecasts that tablet purchases by rural area residents will account for 11% of total U.S. tablet sales by 2016.
Wi-SUN Alliance is Born for Wireless Smart Utility Devices
Posted by: Steve Senne | April 13th, 2012 | No Comments »
A group of eight organizations involved the development, manufacturing and sale of smart utility network products announced the formation of the Wi-SUN (Wireless Smart Utility Network) Alliance in Tokyo recently. Supporting the emerging IEEE 802.15.4g standard for wireless communications of battery-powered equipment, Alliance members are “committed to establishing common standards for the global smart grid roll-out,” according to a press release.
Smart Homes to Generate $11.3 Billion in Revenue by 2017, Driven by Broadband
Posted by: Mike Boehne | April 12th, 2012 | No Comments »
The U.S. smart home systems and services market will grow to reach $7.6 billion in revenue in 2012, driven by increasing demand for broadband-enabled home security and control systems, according to new Strategy Analytics’ research.
Lantiq Brings GigE to ADSL2/2+
Posted by: Steve Senne | April 5th, 2012 | No Comments »
Lantiq today introduced its XWAY ARX300 family for new ADSL2/2+ Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). The new product line incorporates “four System-on-Chip (SoC) derivatives which address different system configurations, ranging from cost-optimized fast Ethernet to feature-rich, high-performance Gigabit Ethernet systems,” according to a company press release.
Three Million New Broadband Subscribers in 2011
Posted by: Mike Boehne | March 22nd, 2012 | No Comments »
Broadband penetration is high in the U.S., but the number of Americans signing up for broadband Internet services continues to expand, while the competition for new subscribers is fierce as telcos vie with cable companies and other ISPs. The 18 largest U.S. cable and telco operators (who account for 93% of the market) acquired 3 million net new high-speed Internet subscribers in 2011, 88% of 2010′s total, according to a new research report from the Leichtman Research Group.
IPv6 Testing to Commence for Home Networks
Posted by: Steve Senne | March 19th, 2012 | No Comments »
The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) today announced that its offering home network system integrators the opportunity to test the interoperability of their IPv6 installations. One goal of this testing is to help integrators meet the requirements for participation in World IPv6 Launch during the fourth IPv6 CE (Home Router) Test Event, which will take place April 16-April 20 at UNH-IOL.
