Call of the Wired

Content drives communications technology. No, duh, right? The more content your subscribers have—or want—the mightier your networking knowledge must become. And, sheesh, do your subs have access to more content than ever. Digital video, digital music, digital photos, interactive video games and… you get the point. So, now that they’ve got it, they want an easy way to distribute it throughout the house. Cable’s already-installed base of coax in homes seems a natural candidate to fuel the impending, home networking revolution. But coax isn’t the only existing wiring into subs’ homes. The telephone and power companies want to snag a big slice of the home networking pizza too. Why wireless? Coax doesn’t currently run into every room in the average household, but neither does telephony wiring. Power runs everywhere, but different circuits can require new equipment to connect the whole house. Homeowners want more equipment installed just about as much as they want more wiring. What we’ve got here is three industries based on wires that are going to have to make the wireless leap to win at home networking. Each one already has an “in” into the home, but the winner will be the one with the engineering smarts to think beyond its wires. WiFi, anyone? Laura Hamilton
Editorial Director, Broadband
Lhamilton@accessintel.com