BBWF Exhibits - Broadband World Forum Paris

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Saturday, 17 September 2011 21:10

It's going to be a great show. Here's some notes on the more interesting exhibitors as well as the complete list. See also the What's Hot.
BBWF

Actelis Networks has an interesting small box that can dramatically increase the rate/reach of a DSL line. Just don’t call it a repeater.
Adtran, like Calix, is mostly considered a U.S. supplier but is ambitious about expanding worldwide.
Alcatel-Lucent for two years has been on the cusp of delivering vectored DSL and will probably feature it. (Written before I took a briefing under non-disclosure.)
AudioCodes. Ask them about HD Voice, ready to explode in Europe.
Aware hasn’t been as visible since they stopped designing DSL chips but maintains a line of respected test equipment
Broadband Forum is a non-profit group including almost all companies in the industry.
Calix, like Adtran, is mostly considered a U.S. supplier but is ambitious about expanding worldwide.
Celeno makes MIMO WiFi chips. Ask them for evidence from the that MIMO WiFi is fast enough to distribute HD video around the house. No one believes it, but it’s very close.
DECT Forum sets the standard for cordless phones. The new version, CAT-IQ, includes HD Voice. Lantiq tells me it’s ready for production.
Ericsson has a new line of “edge routers” that Hans Vestberg tells me are really fast and will (finally) redeem the Redback purchase. Ask Ericsson, Alcatel, and NokiaSiemens when 8x8 LTE Advanced will be ready.
France Telecom Orange is the world pioneer in HD Voice, starting in Moldavia and soon in Paris. They continue to support their labs when so many other telcos have said to ‘ell with the future.
Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited is little known in the West but offers the best deal on 100 megabit and gigabit connections in the world. CEO William Yeung is doing a keynote on how to be profitable while charging 50% less for 100 megabits. He has a “great big hairy goal” of displacing the incumbent.
Huawei passed Ericsson to be the biggest telecom vendor in the world. The problem now: there’s very little more room to grow. So they are making billion dollar investments in cloud computing and corporate networking.
Ikanos Communications is a must see for the first details of node scale vectored DSL, which Huawei has endorsed.
Lantiq has their version of DSL vectoring, 3x3 MIMO WiFi, HD Voice for Dect phones, and a customer announcement on GPON chips.
Pace, without fanfare, has probably become the largest set top box maker in the world. Motorola & Cisco/Scientific Atlantic
Qualcomm Atheros and Ruckus Wireless are both at the forefront of high speed WiFi. Is it ready for HD TV? Can they prove it.
Sandvine’s Dave Caputo was surprised when I recently recommended their gear to a consulting client for network management. I’ve often criticized the abusive ways service providers use the boxes to close the web, but they can also be used for honorable purposes.
Technicolor is the new name for the company we used to call Thomson. They remain a major player in CPE, gateways and set tops. (And also deliver Technicolor services to Hollywood.)