Telecom Lead America: 94 percent of service providers
participating in Infonetics’ survey use IP STBs to deliver video services.
Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and
video at Infonetics Research, said Cisco is now perceived as the overall top IP
set-top box supplier by operators, while Motorola was top dog last year.
This is consistent with its set-top box market share
reporting, where Cisco has led in global IP STB revenue share for 4 straight
quarters. Cisco’s efforts over the past year to expand its IP set-top box
lineup and customer base, and the major contracts it has scored with AT&T,
Deutsche Telekom, and Telus, are paying off.
Carriers identified the top 3 critical IP STB
applications as video on demand (VOD), electronic program guide (EPG), and
whole-home DVR.
STB social networking capabilities (Facebook, Twitter,
etc.) were not rated highly by survey respondents.
Ethernet is the leading technology for connecting STBs to
home networks and sharing media with other devices, followed by 802.11n and
universal plug and play (UPnP).
Increases in HD programming and time-shifted viewing are
placing greater storage burdens on the STB: 71 percent of operator respondents
believe they will need more than 500G of hard drive capacity by 2013.
Cisco and Motorola are tied as the most installed IP STB
suppliers among carriers, followed by Amino, said Infonetics Research in its
report called Hybrid IP Set-Top Box Features and Vendor Leadership: Global
Service Provider Survey. The report focuses on service providers’ requirements
for hybrid IP-based set-top boxes (STBs) to deliver video services.
