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lIt’s easy to forget how we used to watch TV. The years of working around the schedule of TV networks are long gone. But also long gone are the times where you had to rush home to avoid missing a programme or, God forbid, having to set the VCR to record a programme (hoping that you weren’t breaking a law you weren’t aware of ). The years of TV working around us, on more devices than just a stationary television, are very much here and now whether it be using your DVR, TiVo or watching on your iPad. More devices drive the need for more IP addresses which we’re running out of. Our look at the new protocol IPv6 (on page 6) should be entertaining if not just from the dizzying figures involved.

In this issue we also look at how consumers are falling back in love with TV as well as some of the new ways to love TV no matter what you’re watching on and no matter where you are. It’s no small subject as you will see (on our front page). It’s a subject that cable CEOs are talking about both inside and outside of the boardroom. TV everywhere is something that we will come back to time and time again. And, of course, we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t look at the OTT threat and how cable is responding to it. You will notice more cable providers pushing services into the cloud (on page 2) to keep a competitive edge with new, interactive services to further customize the TV experience. We also have a special guest view piece (on page 3) that looks at the state of the market where cable is driving demand for its high speed broadband products. Regulation remains a key uncertainty while regulators are expected to put a priority on investment in new networks. We’re mostly thrilled to bring you a very exclu-sive interview with Commissioner Neelie Kroes (on pages 4-5). You will see what she expects from our industry where cable plays the role of a head-on competitor adding to the urgency for next generation network deployment. How could something as vital as broadband not be political? We’re happy to be right there in the middle of the debate on how to best connect Europe. It’s our job.

Caroline van Weede (Managing Director Cable Europe) Peter Percosan (Managing Director Cable Europe Labs)

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Exclusive Interview

The Woman DrivingBroadband In Europe

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Technology

IPv6 & Its 340 Undecillion Addresses

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The Expert View

NGA Good News For Cable?

1 C A B L E N E W S I S A P U B L I C A T I O N F R O M C A B L E E U R O P E & C A B L E E U R O P E L A B S 1

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Top Story

The Revolution Will Be Televised (pick a screen)

Change seldom comes with warning but is always expected in the technology sector. 2011brings us a new chief at Apple, HP having decided to spin off its PC business, Motorola being sold to Google and the loss of another woman tech leader after Carol Bartz’s high profile Yahoo! exit. In the meantime, social media applications have helped the world keep an eye on big change in the Middle East.

Disruption Central Also no stranger to changes of late, Rupert Murdoch once said that “the world is changing very fast and that the big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.” This certainly applies to the role of the screen.

No such thing as a TV any-more?Time Warner’s Chairman and CEO, Glenn Britt caused a stir this year by casually (and pub-licly) signalling the beginning of a new era where content is more important than how we view it, “There’s no such thing as a TV anymore.” It’s not a fatalistic

remark, however. It is a heads up for the business of provid-ing content. EU and worldwide policy makers are not free of the associated challenges. The management of copyright and rights clearance is a task that won’t get easier for business or policymakers. Streamlining will require effort that is widely seen as needed for Europe’s ever-modernizing single market.

I want it all, I want it nowThe number of devices is increasing. If you’re not watch-ing a video clip on YouTube from your laptop, you might be checking the news on your handheld device or sending a tweet on your iPad – all with the TV on. We access content daily without thinking twice about the devices we’re using. Content passes through an increasing number of devices much more easily than in the past. Once a buzzword, convergence is something that consum-ers simply expect. It’s why cable providers are integrating their video services through broad-band access, iPads and PCs.

Despite new viewing options, the TV continues to rule the living room. Fresh IHS Screen Digest analysis on linear versus non linear TV viewing tells us that in the UK, one of Europe’s most developed TV markets, time shifted viewing will ac-count for only 13 per cent of all viewing by 2015. IHS Screen Digest’s Guy Bisson says that this indicates that people are sitting down to watch traditionally delivered TV far more than other forms of content such as online short and long form content, TV VOD and time shifted DVR. But don’t believe for a second that this is any indication that cable companies don’t have big plans to keep your TV experience in full evolutionary swing. OTT (over the top) services are a threat. But OTT also has cable strategists in offense mode with its TV everywhere services. Digital VOD (a blog) says : “One could argue that there is a fair amount of ‘added value’ to the consumer (and distributor) by having the multiple viewing options and expect to see the cable providers offering up more robust versions of the ‘TV Anywhere’ idea. This could put the squeeze on SVOD services like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon in regards to future licensing considerations.”

See The Revolution Will Be Televised on p.2 >

Ziggo’s move is part of the inevitable trend of linking content to a growing number of consumer devices and leading rather than keeping up with user trends. Big ideas and equally big announcements always come with little details. And lawyers, too, for sure. Ziggo is ironing out negotiations in order to strike agreements with broadcasters to enable streaming of content to iPads, Android tablets and mobile phones.

Toilet humourFar from being as embarrassing as admitting to smoking in bed, few readers who own iPads would be able to deny catching up on their favorite series while tucked up in bed once in a while. We won’t ask social networking addicts to raise their hands if they’ve been active while in the bathroom but surveys provide us with the obvious answer.

Nothing newCloud computing as a concept is nothing new, of course. First talked about back in the ‘60’s by artificial intelligence and computer science guru, John McCarthy, cloud computing was put into high profile use in the ‘90s as Amazon.com relied on it for its explosive use (and need) of computing power. As a buzzword, it seemed to have come back into vogue with policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic. At a session this year in Brussels, former FCC Chairman and current US Ambassador to the EU, William Kennard, picked it as his speaking topic after being told he could speak about literally anything he wanted. Kennard talked about being shown one of the first PDAs and wondering how it could possibly work

to surf the net on such a small device. The answer by an executive at a palm-held device manufacturer company whose name would not be hard to guess was a simple one, “The Cloud.”

The present futureFast forward to today and you see that the agility that cloud computing offers is catching on in a very big and horizontal way. Despite the fact that some call cloud computing sour grapes such as Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison, who dismissed cloud computing as “everything that we already do”, the effect of cloud computing will continue to be seen and talked about in cable and other communications circles. The efficiencies it brings send CEOs, pardon the expression, to Cloud 9.

Pushing the boat out – all the wayHolland’s largest cable operator, Ziggo, plans to bring about greater interactivity and on-demand services to its entire universe of consumer set top boxes and will begin later in the year. It has its sights set on 2012 at which point we can imagine many other cable peers to have followed suit. Ziggo’s first move will be to upgrade its tuners with new software. It still remains to be seen if the especially early models will be included in the upgrade even though the goal is a blanket enhancement for all of its customers.

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Corporate observatory

Not the future, it’s Ziggo’s present plan: Cloud Computing

OTT Threat: Winning, duhIt boils down to a challenge to be there and be there first. Cable does have a stronghold in the living room today. But the OTT threat isn’t something to be made light of. There is a big

shift in the works. But the whole phe-nomenon needs to be viewed in con-text. What do you need to turn your PC into a TV that plays high qual-ity video content (without stopping

to tell you it’s buffering)? If you’re thinking of a fast and reliable high speed connection, you’re thinking: cable. It’s all about winning. Just ask Charlie Sheen. Duh.

Falling back in love with the TV Virgin Media’s TiVo and Liberty Global’s Horizon stand out as good examples of responses to the threat of cannibalization and commoditization that the OTT threat brings to the table. It’s a tricky business. Make your net connection too fast and too good (is this possible?) and you could over-expose yourself to OTT competition. Cable companies have to serve the customer exactly what they want and both Virgin and Liberty’s offers recognize the increased appetite for choice that consumers have. As Liberty Glo-bal’s Mike Fries is known for saying, it’s all about helping the consumer fall back in love with TV.

Modernizing means streamliningWhen you look at these developments from a pan-European perspective, it is no wonder that you will find cable operators (and their competi-tors) calling for more streamlined and transpar-ent copyright and collective management rules. It’s simple. They want VOD to flow easier and, if needed, across borders. The single market for content element from a need perspec-tive is rather straight forward. Modernization in the marketplace will increase the need for modernization in the policy making depart-ments throughout the European Union where the single market serves as a spinal cord for the political union.

Update: The revolution will be televised, tweeted, on YouTube & on TiVo Gil Scott-Heron is known for the poem-cum-song, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” But one acid-jazz act, Smoove, turned Scott-Heron’s title on its head:

The Revolution will be scratched, spun back and sampled as a loop. It will appear as the red button on your remote control. The Revolution will operate a job-share, or flexi-time option, so you can have it at your leisure.

In a continued battle to keep the consumer happy, on side and with the most viewing op-tions possible for premium content, the revolu-tion will continue. And cable, as you might have guessed, will be there.

The Revolution Will Be Televisedfrom cover page

There is not much sense in talking about the future of cloud computing. Not because it does not have a future (it does) but because it is happening right now in Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes’ backyard. Dutch cable company, Ziggo, has announced plans for putting its programs and movies in the cloud, effectively making them accessible everywhere.

Editorial Committee:Caroline van Weede, Gregg Svingen, Jessica Fernandez (Cable Europe)Peter Percosan (Cable Europe Labs)

Publisher:Cable Europe & Cable Europe LabsGregg SvingenAvenue des Arts 411040 Brussels, Belgium

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n Cable Europe is a trade association that groups leading broadband cable TV operators and their national associations throughout Europe. Its aim is to promote and defend the industry’s policies and business interests at European and international level, and to foster co-operation among its members.

Cable Europe Labs is the association’s technical centre of excellence. Its core activities are research on emerging technologies, developing standards for cable technology, and the certification of vendor equipment.The European broadband cable TV industry provides digital TV, broadband internet and telephony services to more than 70 million households.

Real RisksCable’s success in driving consumer demand for high speed broadband is forcing incumbents to invest in fiber-based Next Generation Access (NGA) technologies, potentially eliminating cable’s competitive advantage over the next 5-7 years. However, we argue that what cable could lose in product differentiation it should gain in pricing power as the infrastructure market re-consolidates, squeezing local loop unbundlers. Regulation remains the key uncertainty, but short-term we expect regulators to prioritise investment over competition to incentivise NGA rollouts.

DOCSIS3.0 is driving high speed broadband demand, forcing incumbents to respondWith most European regulators and incumbents unable to agree terms for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) rollout, it is possible that Europe will have fewer fiber users than China by 2015, given the Chinese government’s plan to invest $300 bn to run fiber to every village. As Europe adopts harsh austerity measures, national funding of fiber rollouts appears increasingly unlikely in our view, while operators are also unlikely to get the ‘regulatory holidays’ that would ensure a healthy ROI.

Fortunately for European consumers, we believe cable’s early and aggressive rollout of DOCSIS3.0, together with increasing interest in on-demand video, is increasing pressure on incumbent operators to invest, at least in cable areas. We believe it will take most operators at least five years (and potentially longer) to deploy FTTH given a limited supply of construction engineers and time consuming local planning consents. If consumer demand for bandwidth jumps before operators are ready to respond, market share losses could be large and value destruction substantial given operators’ high fixed costs and significant financial leverage.

As a result, we believe that incumbents are finally preparing to accelerate NGA investments. In our recent industry report, we estimated that it could cost an extra EUR41 bn for incumbents to deploy FTTH across the European cable footprint.

New copper technologies could offer telcos a quick fix, but implementation is challengingThe good news for incumbents is that copper technology continues to evolve. Vendors like Alcatel-Lucent claim the ability to deliver up to 100 MB/s speeds over copper using a combination of pair-bonding and ‘vectoring’ techniques. KPN, an early adopter of such technologies, believes that 60% of homes in the Netherlands could be reached via new technologies at low incremental cost, while up to 90% of homes could be addressed in the long run. This creates the risk that cable’s infrastructure advantage could prove more short lived than many expect, while incumbents could enjoy the ‘breathing room’ needed to allow a slow deployment of FTTH, funded within current capex budgets over the next decade.

However, the ability to implement these technologies commercially is unproven. Many operators have limited knowledge of the quality of the second copper line, and if the operator raises customer awareness of high speed broadband but then cannot supply it, this could accelerate market share losses to cable. Given these issues, we assume that in most markets only 30% of European homes (within the cable footprint) will receive new copper technology, with the remainder requiring FTTH. This lowers our ‘base case’ estimate of incremental NGA costs for operators over and above current rollout plans to EUR32 bn, of which the largest portion is concentrated in Germany.

NGA deployments should benefit all infrastructure owners, increasing pricing powerWhile incumbent operators are being

forced to fight back, the good news for cable companies is that NGA investments should concentrate market power towards infrastructure owners (i.e., cable and the incumbent operator), at the expense of local loop unbundlers. This is because unbundling next generation copper technologies is impractical (there isn’t enough space on the street to have multiple local cabinets, for example), while unbundling FTTH is technically challenging. As a result we believe unbundlers will have to raise prices in order to pass on higher local access fees for fiber-based services. Along with the need for incumbents to earn a return on costly NGA investments, we expect this will improve pricing power in the broadband market. In other words, what cable could lose by seeing its speed advantage diminish and market share gains become harder, should be more or less offset by the benefit of higher prices.

The key uncertainty to our view is the actions of the EC and of national regulators, who could introduce price controls on NGA (or cable) wholesale fees, and/or force sharing of ducts at attractive terms to encourage multiple NGA buildouts. But with Europe falling behind China in the race to build next generation infrastructure, we expect regulators to favour investment over competition near-term. Over the longer-term, once NGA rollouts are nearing completion, regulatory risks rise significantly.

Tim Boddy & Hugh McCaffrey are employees of Goldman Sachs International. Important disclosures about Goldman Sachs and the companies it covers are available at www.gs.com/research/hedge.html

C A B L E N E W S | 3 |

The Expert View

Cable still strongly positioned despite accelerating incumbent NGA rollouts

By Tim Boddy & Hugh McCaffrey, Goldman Sachs European Telecoms/

Cable Investment Research

Denmark

Italy

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UKSwitzerland

SwedenSpain

PortugalNorway

Netherlands

GermanyFrance

BelgiumAustria

Incremental CAPEX to roll out NGA within cable footprint, EUR bn.

1. What are you doing to get more women involved in technology and more generally in business and policy making?I am concerned that not enough women are engaged in this interesting and exciting sector. I am working with my colleagues in the European Parliament and interested Ministers to address this general skills shortage in the sector. In my view, the ICT sector must find a new gender balance if it wants to avoid underperformance. Our goal of “Every European digital” means getting Euro-pean woman digital too. The issue is not new: over the years, my services have undertaken a number of activities in this area which have led me to the conclu-sion that we need to work together with business. We have developed a code of best practice which has over 60 signato-ries from multinationals, academia, SMEs and NGOs and has helped influence the way these companies attract, recruit, train and retain women in this sector. But we still need to do more to get girls into this field.

Over the years, the Commission has encouraged different stakeholders to get together and address the issues which have led to women not finding jobs in ICT attractive. The most recent discus-sions took place during a very successful workshop during the Digital Agenda Assembly held in Brussels in June, and I have also discussed further initiatives with leading members of the European parliament. Have a look at my blog posting.

One ‘take home’ message for me from all this work is that we must fight for women without ostracising men in this process. Men are as much part of the so-lution as women. What we need to do is work out in practical ways how to make computers and ICT more attractive for all.

2. What is your favourite personal tech-nology or application?The Internet. I use the Internet to get my news and to talk with citizens. I am

in touch with so many more people because of the Internet – I couldn’t meet them or receive them all in person but now we can exchange our thoughts.

3. What are your views on the future of the IT industry and its role in creating growth for Europe?With a growth rate of 12% the ICT indus-try is one of the fastest growing sectors of the EU economy. The wealth of this sector very much depends on its ability to invest for its long term future. Today, although Europe is not seen as a leader in developing ICT products, much of the underlying technology comes from Europe in the form of the design and de-velopment of the chips and applications that provide the building blocks of mod-ern ICT, as well as leading on embedded systems in other technologies such as the automotive sector. Moreover, there is still a wide margin for growth in Europe in these fields.

4. The Digital Agenda promises a bright future for consumer connectivity. What is the biggest obstacle to your ambi-tious set of plans?The Digital Agenda does indeed aim to bring a bright future for consumer con-nectivity: it aims at all Europeans having basic broadband by 2013, for everyone to have at least 30Mbps connections by 2020 and for half of European house-holds to subscribe to bandwidth above 100Mbps by 2020. A bright future and ambitious targets. The greatest obstacle

to achieve them is the high cost of ensur-ing that all Europeans have access to such connectivity.The Commission estimates that achiev-

ing the 2020 target will require invest-ment of up to €300 billion and this estimate is supported by the analysis of the European Investment Bank. Europe is facing difficult financial conditions as a consequence of recession and it will not be easy to mobilise such funds. However, we all agree that Europe must invest in world class infrastructure if we are to take advantage of the new opportunities that will arise as the world economies renew growth and the Digital Agenda sets out a clear strategy to encourage investment, promote competition and thereby achieve the targets.

5. Do you see technology policy as a good area for Transatlantic coopera-tion? Why or why not?The answer is simply yes.The word technology can be defined in various ways, but all of them are intrinsi-cally international. The most recent Internet technology knows no borders and cannot be contained in a nation state. I believe the recent developments in Northern Africa provide ample proof of that. Also, in terms of the more tradi-tional technology, information and com-munication goods and services travel much more rapidly than some other goods. Technological developments and businesses go global immediately.

Exclusive Interview

Neelie Kroes:Rocking the Tech World

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...Cable has an important role to play in at least two respects. First, it can widely offer 100 Mbps at attractive prices incurring lower costs, and as a result also lower risk which provides a clear competitive edge. Second, by competing head-on, in particular - but not only - with incumbent operators, cable increases the sense of urgency for other players to deploy other next-generation network infrastructure, such as fibre.

Cable Europe’s Gregg Svingen talks to Neelie Kroes, Commissioner for Europe’s Digital Agenda in exclusive interview on cable, the net and girl power. Entering Commissioner Kroes’ space at the European Commissions’ Headquarters in Brussels, it is hard not to notice an imposing brick sitting in the middle of her glass table. A closer look reveals the word ‘Nee’, or Dutch for ‘No’. It’s a helpful reminder about this tech woman’s resolve in executing Europe’s Digital Agenda brick by brick (and a few clicks, too).

While I do not underestimate the devel-opments in many countries, not least China, India, South Korea and Japan, I do believe that both the USA and the European Union play a leading role. The USA is known for its various billion dollar companies having grown from garages. European companies have led the way in touch screen technology and mobile communications. The European Union also boasts enormous developments in areas like eHealth, eGovernment and other ICT applications used in our every day life.

Transatlantic cooperation is not only a desire, it is a reality. Apart from the regular meetings that are organised be-tween the European Union and the USA there are a couple of specific elements of cooperation that I wish to highlight:

Firstly, I signed a Memorandum of Under-standing with my American counterpart last year on cooperation in the area of eHealth. Secondly, last April the USA and the EU jointly agreed a set of ICT Trade Prin-ciples that will be used towards third countries to encourage them to establish a genuine open and global market. Thirdly, under the direction of our politi-cal leaders the EU-USA Summit instruct-ed me and my colleagues to set up an ambitious plan to enhance cooperation in the area of cyber-security.Fourthly, intensive discussions are ongo-ing between the USA and the EU on the various issues revolving around Cloud Computing.

These are examples of the ongoing work. I believe they speak for themselves. Tech-nology is a good area for Transatlantic cooperation.

6. How can companies best support the Digital Agenda initiative?The Commission has been calling on all stakeholders to engage in projects sup-porting the Digital Agenda. During the Digital Agenda Assembly, thousands of participants gathered to put their ideas together and identify concrete projects that contribute to the Digital Agenda objectives. Europe needs healthy compa-nies willing and able to invest. Suffi-cient scale and specialisation, achieved through a further consolidation, are overall market trends that Europe should encourage, in full respect of competi-tion rules. Pan-European companies should help market integration and

the emergence of truly pan-European services, which are not sufficient today. It is exactly those companies that buck the trend of the economic downturn by investing in their future that will be better placed to reap the benefits. And companies also need to be aware of their social responsibility, precisely in order to avoid a need for heavy regulation of the internet that could blunt innovation. For example, they need to act on their special responsibility towards children online, and I am approaching leading companies with concrete ideas on how to achieve this.

7. What are you doing to boost invest-ment in new networks?I must emphasise that infrastructure investment will be led by the private sector and our most important ac-tion is to create the right conditions to encourage private initiatives. This is at the core of the regulatory framework for e-communications, revised by the Commission in 2009 and complemented by the 2010 Recommendation on regu-lated access to Next Generation Access Networks. This framework has proved successful in the past as demonstrated by the rapid growth of basic broadband which produced the world’s largest single broadband market in the EU. Now we must repeat it for Next Generation infrastructure but, as I noted in one of my earlier answers, the very high costs of do-ing this present an obstacle to achieving the Digital Agenda targets for superfast broadband networks.

Therefore, the Digital Agenda strategy will seek to encourage investment by cutting the costs of infrastructure invest-ment. The Commission is also working with the European Investment Bank to develop innovative financial instruments to support broadband investment. Lastly, I would say that boosting private investment will still leave some areas, particularly hard to reach rural communi-ties, without adequate coverage and the Digital Agenda therefore also incorpo-rates direct public support to connect them. State aid rules ensure that such public expenditure does not distort private investment and the Commission is currently having a public consultation to see if the State aid rules for broadband need to be revised in the light of rapid market developments. 8. How is cable doing as a Digital Agenda partner and what more can it do to bring its fibre rich offering to customers?I appreciate the important ways in which cable in Europe can contribute to achieving the objectives of the Digital

Agenda. Just over 50% of all EU house-holds are currently within the physical reach of cable networks. This clearly could help reaching our target of 100 Mbps broadband connections for half of Europe’s citizens. On top of this, cable has an important role to play in at least two respects. First, it can widely offer 100 Mbps at attractive prices incurring lower costs, and as a result also lower risk which provides a clear competitive edge. Second, by competing head-on, in particular - but not only - with incum-bent operators, cable increases the sense

of urgency for other players to deploy other next-generation network infra-structure, such as fibre. This is why I hope that efforts to upgrade cable networks to provide high-speed broadband keep on making rapid progress, also beyond the existing reach of cable networks. In addition, should cable companies with upgraded networks decide to engage in greater price leadership, adding stronger competitive pressure on traditional telecoms networks, we would obviously welcome that!

C A B L E N E W S | 5 |

Transatlantic cooperation is not only a desire, it is a reality.”

Tech women unite: Cable Europe’s Caroline Van Weede shares Cable’s digital vision with Commissioner Neelie Kroes

Cable increases the sense of urgency for other players to deploy other next-generation network infrastructure, such as fibre.

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The problem with IPv4 jokes: There aren’t enough for everyone.

As you read this, we are running out of IP addresses. In fact, by the end of 2011 we should run out, according to the Internet Society (ISOC) who recently conducted a global test run of IPv6, the new global net protocol, this June. And the tech community has been rather concerned since the 1980s about the fourth internet protocol that connects the world today, presaging the day when IPv4’s 4.3 billion addresses would fall short of an increasingly connected planet’s needs. The UN expects the planet’s population to hit 7 billion this autumn which means that the roughly 6.5 billion IP addresses in the world aren’t enough to allow one address per person. Keeping in mind that an IP address is a label given to any device (your PC, printer, tablet) using the internet for any sort of communi-cation in today’s world, it is beyond vital to have one.

The Sky is Falling, But We Have a Plan A transition plan is already in action to pro-vide 4 billion times more addresses – we’ll break that down for you below because it will literally make your head hurt when con-sidering the scale of enormity that IPv6 is bringing to the table. The Internet Society’s recent test day, pushed with the help of Comcast, Google, Facebook and Yahoo!, saw over 400 online entities assess the readiness of IPv6 for a 24 hour “flight test” period. Con-tent was put up in IPv6, sites were accessed and hiccups were zeroed in upon for further study. Most users would not have taken any notice whatsoever. It means that 18 months of preparation for World IPv6 day were rewarded with “no issues.” That’s a success.

NASA, European Commission…and Sesame Street The anticipated shortage has meant that ISPs and web companies have gotten together with the hardware producers and operating system vendors to make the transition to IPv6 as smooth as possible. In practice, that means that Google, Facebook & Yahoo! as well as CableLabs, Comcast, Time Warner Cox and other Cable Europe members have joined with a broad cast of actors who each occupy a special place on the net. Imagine the varied likes of Sesame

Street, Harvard University, Ericsson, the US Department of Commerce, NASA and the European Commission all working together. The group of entities was as diverse as the net itself.

Total Turn Off vs Transition The Internet Society has been working with a host of other online entities to get the tech world rallied behind a greater awareness of the motivation for transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6. The cable industry on both sides of the Atlantic has been working on this issue in order to be in front of the transition rather than chasing it.The word ‘transition’ is key. There will not be a clean switchover similar to Y2K. There are already sites using IPv4 as well as IPv6 specific content. Google has had IPv6 sites up and running since 2008. But an IPv6 connection is needed to access it.

Back to the beginningIt’s worth taking a moment to compare the current amount of addresses that IPv4 allows versus the number of addresses that the switchover to IPv6 will enable. The amount of bits that an IPv4 address uses is 32 compared to the 128 bits for IPv6. Things quickly become exponential here. To give you an idea of how many addresses will be enabled, you’ll probably read a number you’ve never even heard of before. It means that IPv6 will enable 340 undecil-lion addresses. Written out, that is this many addresses: 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456. If you were to read it out it would sound like this: Three hundred and forty undecillion, two hundred and eighty-two decillion, three hundred and sixty-six nonillion, nine hundred and twenty octillion, nine hundred and thirty-eight septillion, four hundred and sixty-three sextillion, four hundred and sixty-three quintillion, three hundred and seventy-four quadrillion, six hundred and seven trillion, four hundred and thirty-one billion, seven hundred and sixty-eight million, two hundred and eleven thousand, four hundred and fifty-six.

As one commentator on the net stated, this is enough addresses for the very long foreseeable future – except if we begin entering into intergalactic communication. It’s a dizzying amount of IP addresses that would enable us to give an IP address to every single atom – not cell -- on surface of the Earth. And after that, there would be enough IP addresses leftover to do this for 100 more planet Earths.

Watch this space (and hopefully see nothing)This is not the last we’ll hear of IPv6. Our techie cable guys are on the case to help accelerate full adoption through a set of dif-ferent transition technologies that hopefully most netizens won’t even notice. And even better if you don’t need a home visit as a result of the transition.

Technology

A New World In Start Up Mode: IPv6

See Cable Europe Labs certifications granted between June 2010 & present below:

Certification Update

Cable Europe LabsCertified Equipment

Fully Tested To Be In Line With

EuroDOCSIS 3.0 EuroPacketCable 1.5

ArrisEMTA TM9025 OK OKAVMCable Modem FRITZ!Box6320 Cable

OK -

CastleNetE-MTA DCV8400 OK -CiscoCable Modem EPC3008 OKEMTA EPC3208 OK OKSTB/CM 8685DVB EuroDOCSIS 2.0CompalE-MTA CV6181E OK OKHitronE-MTA CVE-30360 OK -Cable Modem CDE 30364 EuroDOCSIS 2.0 -NetgearE-MTA CG3100v2 OK -Cable Modem CG2100D EuroDOCSIS 2.0 -TechnicolorSTB/Cable Modem DCI713 EuroDOCSIS 2.0 -Cable Modem TCW770 OKE-MTA THG571 OK OKCable Modem TCM471 OKUbeeE-MTA EVM3230 OK OK

*STB: Embedded in Set Top Box

Go to http://test-ipv6.com/ to see if you are IPv6 ready.Don’t panic if you’re not. This will change. Soon.

An artist’s rendition of IPv6 courtesy of www.caida.org

Word Perfect, Picture PerfectEven the best PR pros should be envious. This year’s Cable Congress was literally a picture perfect setting in which to hold the biggest international cable industry gathering that brought together nearly 800 people from all over the globe. If ever you wanted to get all of the people in the industry who count all in the same room, this was it. On top of that, it was set upon a backdrop of stunning scenery upon which industry leaders summed up the state of the industry with a few hints of what the future is likely to bring.

Speed DemonsBut it got better: Cable Europe’s team arrived on site in Lucerne the very same week that lightning fast speed tests by UPC Cablecom clocked 1.37 Gbit/s. The club of super fast cable operators also includes KDG, Virgin Media and UPC. Even if you’re no techie, trust us: Anything over 1Gbps is wickedly fast. It’s not polite to boast but this is an excep-tion: 1.37 gigabits per second is 70 times faster than the quickest speeds on offer by DSL. Or to put it in other terms, it amounts to the processing of 1,370,000,000 bits per second. Still not getting how fast this is and confused by the numbers? It would mean being able to download an HD movie in a mere five seconds. Or if you’re more into music, your 100 favorite songs would take only ONE second to download. Legally!

Invest, Harvest – Repeat Ok, enough on speed already? The big theme of the press conference held to kick off Cable Congress was that of harvesting the investments that have been ongoing to make the high speed fibre-rich networks that they are today. Before the show even started, we gave a hint of the growth in announcing that cable in Europe had hit 100 million RGUs. Cable has always been known for its loyal

investments into its networks which were 23% CAPEX compared to the incumbents’ European average CAPEX of 12%. Benefits from investing translated into a 6% jump in 2010 sector revenue to 18.8bn euros which beats the GDP growth of many countries. [Update: As we were going to press IHS Screen Digest revised figures upward to show 7.9% growth in 2010 YE revenue to €18.7 bn euros]. As Manuel Kohnstamm said “We know broadband will be big this year but we are delivering on digital TV, too, where we saw revenues grow by 23% in 2010.” Continued double digit subscriber growth for DTV (17.4%), internet (11%) and telephony (11%) all help to talk about harvesting the benefits of investment. And we’ve seen that our investments are emerging as a competitive advantage when you look across Europe.

Social Networks You can get someone to email a presentation you missed or read someone’s notes after a cool session – but you have to be there to take advantage of the ridiculous networking opportunities. And the scenery is something you certainly wouldn’t be able to replicate by conference or video call, that’s for sure. It’s one of the things that we forget about until attendees remind us year in, year out: The network-ing is simply top notch for our industry. It truly does not get better than Cable Congress and of that we’re sure. It’s worth a special mention of the networking that goes on after hours. UPC Cablecom and the Kudelski Group hosted a knock-out evening of entertain-ment and in case the pristine lake and mountains weren’t enough, the night was hosted by a Swiss super model and featured local entertainment from top DJs and even an artist known for the national Swiss instrument, the alphorn, but played in jazz, blues and funk. Check

out Eliana Burki online because we don’t have the words here to describe her.

Gearing up for 2012...alreadyCable Congress returns to Europe’s central processing unit for decision making, Brussels, in 2012. We know that most visitors leave carrying bags bulging with Belgian chocolate (or beer for the suds lovers). But holding Cable Congress at the heart of Europe’s decision making center is a great way for us to remind policy makers in person of the relevance our sector has to the political goals of growth, recovery and jobs that are all helped by the connectivity that cable provides to both the ordinary citizen as well as businesses. Cable will be Up In Lights next year so don’t even think about missing it.

Review

Techtonic forces in the houseTechtonic?? The majestic Alps are the results of the collision of tectonic plates, pushed with great pressure, landmass against landmass. Yet they climbed and climbed. You could say that the cable industry has had a similar but radically shorter history that has seen it exposed to enormous amounts of market stress in competing head to head with the once untouchable incumbents. So, it’s another reason that it made sense to meet on a Swiss plateau and take a good look at where cable is today.

Cable Congress 11

Cable Europe President, Manuel Kohnstamm adds glamour to cable with MC Melanie Winiger, former Miss Switzerland, actress and model

Triple Play in Switzerland: Alpine Horn musician Eliana Burki delivered a bundle of jazz, blues & funk

C A B L E N E W S | 7 |

0

1000000

2500000

3750000

5000000

SloveniaSlovakiaCzech Rep.Bulgaria Hungary RomaniaPoland

Key Metrics

Eastern HighlightsLatest full year data from year end 2010. Source: IHS Screen DigestPopulation and GDP: Eurostat

Don’t miss your chance to ride the next big wave in cable! Come to EuroSummit’11 and master the surging changes in our industry!

www.eurosummit11.com www.ctameurope.com22-23 September 2011Westin Dragonara Resort - Malta

Surf the waves of changeTiming is the key to stay ing on top

ContactPlease send comments, questions or further information requests to info@cable-europe.eu or check out our website at: www.cable-europe.eu

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| 8 | C A B L E N E W S

A fast growing industry with huge potential

Cable Digital TV as a part of Total Cable TV subscribers

Poland broadband market shares (%) Cable Internet vs. DSL subscribers

Poland 31,5%

TV Telephony

DSL

DSL

Internet

Cable

Cable

Romania 48,0%Czech Rep. 18,1%

Hungary 57,0% Slovakia 33,9%

Bulgaria 40,0%Slovenia 36,1%

Market Size subscribers

Cable TV penetration

Poland RomaniaHungaryBulgaria Czech Rep. Slovakia Slovenia

Screen Digest publishes a yearly report - European Broadband Cable - with key data on the European cable industry.More information on this report is available at www.screendigest.com. Members of Cable Europe receive 20% discount to buy this report.

Eastern Europe*Western Europe

Country Population GDP # Operators* TV households Total Cable Revenue

BG 7.6 mn € 36.02 bn 4 3.0 mn € 126 mn

CZ 10.5 mn € 145.25 bn 5 4.5 mn € 246 mn

HU 10.0 mn € 98.44 bn 5 3.7 mn € 588 mn

PL 38.2 mn € 354.32 bn 6 14 mn € 996 mn

RO 21.5 mn € 121.94 bn 3 6.9 mn € 604 mn

SK 5.4 mn € 65.91 bn 6 2.2 mn € 130 mn

SI 2.0 mn € 35.97 bn 3 0.7 mn € 66 mn

EU 501.1 mn € 12268.46 bn > 5503 203.1 mn € 17 856 mn

34% 12,4% 26,7% 40% 25% 30% 32%

29%

58%

21% 24%12% 17%

30%

Digital TV growth2009-2010

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40

TOYAnetAsterVectraMultimediaPolska

UPCDialogNetiaTP / Orange

*Includes countries such as Russia, Turkey, Ukraine

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