BBWN Bites: Builders Toss Nest Out of New Properties
Also today, Tele2 reports earnings, pay-TV rises in Spain, India's government considers streaming censorship and more.
Increasingly, large property developers are shunning Google Nest, as parent company Alphabet has made the smart-home devices less compatible with other vendors' products, and required users to create a Google account and use Google's voice-based Google Assistant service, Bloomberg reported. These builders account for tens of thousands of Nest purchases annually. "We've stopped," said Mark Zikra, vice president of technology at CA Ventures, which builds and operates apartments, senior homes and other property.
"In an apartment complex we're talking about 200, 300 devices that would be installed in one swoop and then all of a sudden everyone moves in. We don't have the luxury of being able to say, 'hey are you a Google person or are you a Honeywell person?' "
Plotting Out Smart-Home Devices
Changes to its policies and products are causing some large property developers to rethink their deployment of Google Nest, with many switching to other products, Bloomberg Reported.
(Image by Borko Manigoda from Pixabay; Home page image: Google Nest)
Swedish provider Tele2 had flat third-quarter revenue of 6.9 billion kronor ($709 million) which delivered 5% growth in EBITDA for SEK2.5 billion ($257 million). Fixed broadband revenue grew 5% year-over-year, but digital TV dropped 6% in the same timeframe, Tele2 reported. End-user service revenue remained flat between Q3 2019 and Q3 2018, but President and CEO Anders Nilsson said the operator is on track to attain its financial goals for 2019, although Tele2 lowered capex to SEK2.3 billion to 2.6 billion ($236.7 million to $267.5 million) from the prior guidance of SEK2.6 to 2.9 billion ($298.4 million).
Operators' pay-TV revenue via xDSL/FTTH networks in Spain reached €402.7 million ($447.8 million) in Q3, up 16.6% from 12 months prior, according to flat third-quarter revenueCNMC Data. Satellite TV fell 14% and cable TV dropped 37%, the site reported.
Although India's government censors TV and movie content, it has not taken this step toward streaming video -- so far. That may soon change, according to Reuters. Netflix and local rival Hotstar signed a self-regulation code in January, but Amazon declined to do so, claiming laws were adequate. However, the government cited the number and frequency of complaints about content -- lack of warning about tobacco in video, alleged "defamation of Hindus" and other potential transgressions of Indian law -- that may force US providers to use automated solutions for localization to avoid huge cost and time increases, one industry expert suggested.
Amazon Pay users in India can now use the service to settle their broadband, satellite, mobile and utilities bills, TechCrunch reported. Consumers use voice commands to determine their bill, find out the balance in their Amazon Pay wallet and transfer funds into the Amazon account, as needed. Usage increased three-fold since last year, TechCrunch said, and could grow even faster now Amazon Alexa speaks Hindi rather than only English.
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— Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News. Follow us on Twitter or @alisoncdiana.
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Here's where you can find episode links for 'The Divide,' Light Reading's podcast series featuring conversations with broadband providers and policymakers working to close the digital divide.
As we have for the past two years, Light Reading will present our Cable Next-Gen Europe conference as a free digital symposium on June 21.
Charter has sparked RDOF work in all 24 states where it won bids. The cable op booked about $19 million in RDOF revenues in Q1, and expects to have about $9 million per month come in over the next ten years.
As we have for the past two years, Light Reading will stage the Cable Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies conference as a free digital event over two half-days in mid-March.
Launch of 2-Gig and 5-Gig FTTP tiers in 70-plus markets puts more pressure on cable ops to enhance their existing DOCSIS 3.1 network or accelerate their upgrade activity centered on the new DOCSIS 4.0 specs.
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