Michael's Insight

P2P applications use 44% of network bandwidth in North America

Multichannel News reported recently that 44% of all network traffic on North American Internet service providers is peer-to-peer file sharing traffic, up from 41% last year.

That statistic was the result of a survey of major ISPs by Sandvine, a company that sells network management systems. I note, in light of the dicussion for more openness in network management practices, that the survey results were posted on Sandvine's website for everyone to read.

The digital transition, as clear as it gets

I sat down with WHAS TV reporter Andy Treinen on Wednesday to talk about the digital television transition that will be happening next year on February 17th.

Andy put together an excellent story that helped to clarify what consumers need to know to successfully transition from the current analog television transmission to digital. His story also mentioned Insight's transition of HBO, HBO2 and Showtime.

Tru2Way for the telcos?

Reported last week at Cable Digital News, CableLabs president and CEO Dr. Dick Green made remarks at NXTComm 2008 inviting telcos to participate with cable operators in the Tru2Way standard.

"The bottom line here is that tru2way is open; it is not exclusive to cable but is available to any multichannel provider that chooses to implement it on their network and in devices. Our combined platforms would certainly attract creative, interactive applications, and they would run on any system that supports the tru2way middleware interface," Green said.

Customers want more HD

Argo mentioned in a comment about more high definition channels.

I look forward to Insight continuing to roll out new HD channels and especially HD On Demand content here in NKY. I have gotten to the point where I actually watch very little programming that isn't in high def!

And Steve mentioned it too.

Hi, Just wanted to know when Insight will be upgrading it's HDTV channels, I really enjoy HD TV and hope you can add alot more HD service soon.

Blogosphere Enjoys the Battle of the Policy Wonks

Lots of coverage about the Tauke / McSlarrow debate last week.

Let's understand exactly what happened here.  Briefly, the FCC found that Verizon was violating a critical provision in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that prohibited phone companies from using their 100-year-old monopoly power to stifle competition in the long run.

How could Verizon do that? 

Blazing Speeds with DOCSIS 3.0

Most of us take our broadband connection for granted.  Thanks to cable modems, turn on your computer and, in a matter of seconds, you're surfing.

A lot of thought went into designing cable modems.  The core software that all cable companies use in them is called DOCSIS.  In order to keep up with the Internet's breakneck pace of change, CableLabs has developed the next generation of DOCSIS (DOCSIS 3.0) that will enable cable operators to increase speeds dramatically.

Attention all blog readers! You must see this!!

I think this may be a first in the Blogosphere.  It's a front row seat to a debate between two top level telecommunications policy leaders. It was so good and so timely, I couldn't wait until Monday.

In this corner (wearing the white hat) ;-) is Kyle McSlarrow, President and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.  And in that corner (wearing the black hat) is Tom Tauke, Executive Vice President - Public Affairs, Policy and Communications for Verizon. 

I posted a link to the debate below but first, a brief explanation. 

Shame on you AT&T!

AT&T has stooped to a new low by running "confusion" ads in Louisville, KY.  The ads obviously were designed to suggest that their bundled pricing is more of a guarantee than ours.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

We sent a letter to AT&T asking them to stop misleading consumers and guess what -- their lawyers refused. 

I'll be specific and you judge for yourself.

Usage Caps and Notification

Terry asked the following question:

I would like to know how people are going to be notified if they are close to their cap? It would be nice if I received an email saying I was close and needed to stop (downloading) for a while, rather than getting a large extra charge on my bill.

I think that's a very fair point.  As I've said in previous posts, we don't have any specific plans at this moment to implement caps.  But I also said that we are watching developments on that subject where Bend Broadband and Time Warner have announced their specific policies.

Because usage patterns are growing so rapidly, most ISP's are forced to consider an alternative policy to the one-size-fits-all charges. 

Leaders in Learning Awards and then on to our first Insight DTV forum in LaGrange, KY

Short post today as I am traveling to Washington for Cable in the Classroom's Leaders in Learning Awards Gala.  I get to present one of the awards to one of our very own customers, Diane Downs of the Louisville Leopard Percussionists, a music education and community-building program that seeks to educate 7-to12-year-olds.  Congratulations Diane!  I'll see you in DC!

Then, it's on to Louisville for our first Digital Transition Forum for our customers in LaGrange, KY.  It will be held on Thursday night.

Why can't we all just get along?

I received this question recently:

Would it be possible for you to explain why there has been an ongoing issue between Sony and cable companies?

Good question.  I believe you are referring to the recently settled disagreement between Sony (and some other consumer electronic manufacturers) and the cable industry over tru2way. 

My personal view is that the consumer electronics industry has a long history of having some very strong opposing viewpoints when it comes to major technological advancements.

NYT: Golden age of television on cable

The New York Times' David Carr penned a column that appeared last week about the emergence of quality cable network programming that is surpassing the competition from their broadcast brethren.

Carr's column is well worth reading. It's a diagnosis of the problems facing broadcast programming - the decline of network news, viewership losses during the writers' strike, and their endless pursuit of "the next big thing."

Denver Post profiles the Cable Center

Broadband Reports profiled an interview in last Saturday's Denver Post with Larry Satkowiak the CEO of the Cable Center in Denver. The Cable Center is an educational non-profit and museum that showcases the programming technological achievements that have been developed by the cable industry.

Full disclosure: I currently serve as the chairman of the Cable Center's Board of Directors.

Testing tru2way and failing

Lots of news in the Blogosphere yesterday about a failed tru2way certification test at CableLabs when IP Democracy's Cynthia Brumfield reported that Panasonic's first attempt at certification uncovered multiple flaws.  Quoting an unnamed source close to the testing,

the first certification test of the technology is a "disaster of spectacular proportions."

I'm told by the folks at CableLabs that it's not unusual for new technology testing to uncover multiple significant flaws.  That's what testing is all about. 

Blogging and customer care

A few colleagues have asked me if writing this blog has exposed me to an onslaught of customer complaints.   They also wonder, if I have received some, how do I handle them. 

I'm pleased to report that, although there have been a few individual service-related comments posted, it has really only been a handful.

To begin this discussion, I thought I should highlight the recently-added message on the left side of this blog's main page regarding comments:

Issue with the Motorola HD set-top box

Cypherstream read my post last week about the way we transmit HD signals and commented that:

The only problem is the Motorola HD boxes convert everything to one specified resolution set in the obscure (power off, menu) screen. So you can only pick 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i... not a combination of them.
...
I'd like to see MSO's push Motorola as hard as they can to release a firmware update that allows native HD resolution selection, without powering the box off.

Good point and I admit that this was the first I heard of this issue.  So I checked with Patrick, our Vice President of Engineering and Video Systems, and got the scoop. Here's what Patrick says:

Confessions of a Network Manager (Part 2)

I promised more on Network Management following my Part 1 post a few weeks ago.  Today, I'd like to discuss downstream management.

Why Do We Have to Manage Downstream Usage?

We, at Insight, go to great lengths to handle network management fairly.  We recognize that the Internet is a shared network, and that all network managers, ISP's and backbone providers alike, first should provision responsibly and then make sure their networks don't get clogged up. 

Customers comment on Broadband caps and metering

Dualsub2006 expressed a concern about usage caps:

Any thoughts of a 40GB cap in Insight land will NOT go over very well.

I hear you and as I have previously mentioned, we currently are not planning any changes in the way we charge customers for their Internet usage. Did I leave the door open to changing that in the future?  Yes I did.  We are keeping a watchful eye on increasing usage patterns and regulatory, legislative and business movements affecting these issues. 

How we transmit HD signals

Someone over on the Insight forum on Broadband Reports had this question about how we transmit our HD signals:

[CATV] HD resolution I know that networks such as ABC broadcast in 720p and others such as CBS send 1080i. My question is; how does Insight send that signal to us? Do they pass it through or convert everything to 720p? Specifically, I live in the Columbus, Ohio area and have a Motorola DCT6412 III DVR box.

One blogger's take on digital transition public service advertisements

Over at the Undercurrent, a blog run by the Louisville-based Current Marketing agency, Katy Miller comments on a PSA about the digital television transition:

Here's what's confusing to me - the spot ran on cable. So, if you are watching using rabbit ears, you would never see the spot. Why is that spot running on cable? Did someone PAY to run that spot on cable? Or did it run as a PSA? Either way, why is that air time being wasted? I feel sure there are plenty of other deserving and more appropriate PSAs that could be run in this time.

Here's the spot:

Here's the scoop Katy.  We are running the spots for free.  We're doing so for several reasons.  First, the cable industry, along with the broadcast and consumer electronics industries all agreed to a Congressional request that we create and execute a communications program to educate the public about the coming broadcast digital transition.

Telcos figure out the answer is coax

Broadband Reports pointed me to a new and interesting product the other day. Turns out some telcos want to use existing coaxial cable in fiber-to-the-home deployments, avoiding more costly Cat-5 wiring. Yes, that's coaxial cable originally installed for cable television.

In a world of super high-speed connections, isn't it ironic that the time-tested technology that delivers your cable services is "discovered" by the telcos to be the best way to connect to your home devices?  Cable operators have known for years that a hybrid-fiber-coax network (HFC) is the best and most efficient way to deliver voice, video and data services to customers' devices. 

A New ISP Business Model

Argo recently asked,

(Why shouldn't) a cable company offer a platform to other media outfits and charge them for maintenance and overhead rather pass that cost to customers."

Great question! 

Let's look at one example of a new business model. 

Netflix recently announced a set-top box to deliver movies directly to a set-top box via the Inernet. It's a very exciting idea that adds great value to their service and they will save a ton of money in postage, a good thing for them. 

Their plan will use an enormous amount of Internet bandwidth which can cause additional congestion along the way.  To prevent this from happening, ISP's and Internet backbone suppliers provision for increases in usage.