There have been lots of news releases today. Remember that VON is peaking right now and everyone's making their announcements. VON isn't just about voice any more. It's about video.

This might seem out of place mentioned Actiontec's consumer premise equipment here, but think about all those teleworkers in enterprise business. Think about your own home office. Got DSL? Who made the modem. Actiontec is a big player in this space, and IPTV will blend with other streaming video as the technologies mature. Worth keeping an eye on.

ACTIONTEC BROADBAND SHIPMENTS TOP 5 MILLION; 1 MILLION SOLD SINCE OCTOBER
Broad Line of IPTV-Capable Consumer Premises Equipment Fuels Rapid Growth

SUNNYVALE, CA (March 20, 2007) — Actiontec Electronics today announced that it shipped its 5 millionth residential broadband connectivity product in February, marking an increase of 1 million units in just four months. Most of the surge was driven by the company’s expanding line of IPTV-capable consumer premises equipment designed to support the rise of IP video, with products that make Actiontec the first vendor to support every WAN and LAN distribution standard including VDSL2, ADSL2+ bonded, MoCA, HomePlug AV and HPNA3.

Actiontec’s business growth is also directly related to increasing penetration of residential broadband services in the U.S. A recent Parks Associates study reported that residential subscriptions to broadband Internet services surged 20% in 2006 to exceed 50 million U.S. households, with ongoing growth expected to turn more than half of U.S. households into broadband users by next year.

“We sold 4 million residential gateways, modems and routers in our first decade in business, and then 1 million broadband gateways in the space of four months — almost all of them directly to Tier 1 and Tier 2 service providers. That demonstrates the reputation of our products in the marketplace as well as our ability to deliver CPE equipment that supports both the delivery and in-house distribution of pay TV services,” said Dean Chang, Actiontec President and CEO. “We are clearly emerging as the CPE provider of choice for carriers’ triple play initiatives.”

Last year, Actiontec introduced the first broadband router equipped with built-in support for the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) networking standard that is being embraced as a leading alternative for delivering and/or distributing IPTV. The router’s WAN MoCA support enables telcos with fiber networks to provide connectivity at speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to meet the higher throughput demands of video content. The product’s LAN MoCA connectivity solves the crucial “inside mile” problem associated with disseminating different content to different rooms in the house by distributing content over a home’s existing coaxial cabling, eliminating the time and expense of stringing Ethernet cable.

That router was adopted by Verizon to support the FiOS broadband and video services being delivered over its growing fiber-to-the-premises network. All new customers for the FiOS services now receive the Actiontec router as part of the installation.
Earlier this year, Actiontec unveiled a series of ADSL+, ADSL2+ bonded and VDSL gateways to meet the needs of service providers of all sizes and infrastructures. The new products can manage traffic loads ranging from 24 Mbps to 100 Mbps, support legacy telco delivery mechanisms as well as new fiber-to-the-curb/VDSL-to-the-house scenarios, and provide room-to-room content distribution with a choice of MoCA, HomePlug AV or HPNA3 networking in addition to Ethernet and WiFi connectivity.

These features and others, including bandwidth prioritization and TR-069 remote management capabilities, enable efficient handling of both standard and HDTV programming.

Other major Actiontec broadband connectivity products include the 54 Mbps Wireless DSL Gateway, an all-in-one carrier-grade ADSL modem, router, wireless access point and firewall that was the world’s first fully integrated instant home wireless networking solution; wireless-ready and wired-only DSL gateways; and single-user DSL modems. The company also sells home networking and Internet telephony products.

About Actiontec Electronics, Inc.
Actiontec Electronics develops products and services enabling consumers to leverage broadband Internet connectivity to simplify and enrich their lives. Covering the full spectrum of solutions for the digital life, Actiontec’s products include broadband modems, home gateways, wireless networking devices, routers, VoIP adapters, and digital entertainment devices, sold through retail channels and broadband service providers. Founded in 1993, Actiontec is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, and maintains branch offices in Austin, TX; Colorado Springs, CO; Basingstoke, United Kingdom; Shanghai, China; and Taipei, Taiwan. For more information, call 408-752-7700 or visit http://www.actiontec.com .