HomePNA announces that the 5 millionth HomePNA 3.1 chipset has now shipped, up from 2 million less than six months ago. The shipments demonstrate the high demand for HomePNA multimedia home networking devices in IPTV service deployments.

HomePNA is being deployed by dozens of telephone companies worldwide including AT&T, Aliant in Canada, and Sonaecom in Portugal. With almost 30 certified products, HomePNA offers service providers more certified products that operate over coaxial cable than any other standard.

HomePNA has certified an additional nine products and the first 320 Mbps chipset reference design as HomePNA 3.1 compliant, increasing the number of certified products to 26. The new certifications include ADSL and VDSL residential gateways, set-top boxes, Ethernet to HomePNA 3.1 bridges, and an iNID outdoor residential gateway/indoor Wi-Fi access point.

HomePNA plugfests are only open to HomePNA members. Newly certified products and designs include:

• 2Wire iNID VDSL2 outdoor residential gateway and indoor Wi-Fi access point units
• D-Link ADSL2+ residential gateway
• SMC VDSL2 residential Gateway and Ethernet to HomePNA 3.1 coax bridge

Find out the rest after the jump.

HomePNA will exhibit at IP Possibilities Conference & Expo in Chicago April 7 to 11, and address “Lessons Learned About Installing Home Networks for triple-play IPTV Services” at NABShow’s Telecom 2008 in Las Vegas April 14. HomePNA 3.1 home networking technology is being deployed today by a rapidly growing number of telcos for IPTV. It enables service providers to distribute high-speed, triple-play services -- IPTV, VoIP and data -- over both phone wires and coaxial cables in the home at speeds up to 320 megabits per second with guaranteed QoS.

Focusing on rural telephone companies, IP Possibilities attendees learn how to evaluate the next generation of IP technologies from a financial, technical, and operational perspective. Participants will learn how to identify areas of growth, improve their customers’ experience, ensure a smooth transition, and increase their profitability. Attendees can discuss HomePNA and explore its benefits during show hours, April 9 and 10 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

HomePNA broadens its HomepPNA 3.1 product availability and telephone company deployments demonstrate how the open standard is maturing in the multimedia home marketplace. With more than 17 HomePNA products on the market, nine large telcos and many smaller telcos have deployed HomePNA to deliver high-speed, triple-play services to subscribers.

Aliant stated that the availability of HomePNA 3.1 products eased the telco’s deployment of IPTV services to customers. “We are pleased that there are now off-the-shelf products available to Aliant that incorporate the HomePNA 3.1 standard to simplify the in-home experience for our end-user customers,” said Gary Lund, chief technical officer for Aliant. Aliant is the leading IPTV service provider in Atlantic Canada and one of the largest regional telcos in North America. “HomePNA allows us to use the existing wires in our customers’ homes to reduce installation times for Aliant TV’s growing customer base without compromising performance.”

Aliant has begun using CopperGate’s CopperStream HomePNA 3.1 chipset integrated into set-top boxes and other Ethernet-over-Coax products for deployment of its new IPTV service offering. Aliant is the leading IPTV service provider in Atlantic Canada.

Aliant TV was launched in June 2005 and is now available in Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia; Moncton, New Brunswick; and St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Aliant TV delivers digital picture and sound quality and features over 200 fully digital television channels and over 170 digital audio services, pay-per-view and an easy-to-use electronic (on-screen) program guide.

Pulse introduces its Excelsus brand B-V175 twisted pair to coaxial balun that allows DSL or home phoneline networking frequencies to be transmitted from twisted pair to coaxial mediums, and vice versa, to support VDSL2 and HomePNA deployments. The balun is easily installed with simple plug-in connections. It matches a 100 Ohm twisted pair cable, which is a balanced signal, to a 75 Ohm coaxial cable, which is an unbalanced signal, without degrading the signal.

Telephone companies transmit their signals over twisted pair wiring. This is the existing home wiring that normally is supplied to a house by the telephone company. A balun is a passive electronic device that converts between balanced and unbalanced electrical signals. With the Excelsus B-V175, the twisted pair telephone or VDSL2 connectors are plugged into one end of the balun and a coaxial cable that is connected to the other end of the balun is plugged into a set-top box. The signal from the phone/VDSL2 line is then able to be used to supply the set-top box and the TV with IPTV.

Two million HomePNA chip sets shipped by CopperGate Communications demonstrates strong HomePNA adoption amid the growing IPTV market. HomePNA, which features guaranteed quality of service to eliminate collisions between data streams and high user throughput, is used to distribute HDTV as well standard definition television, VoIP and other multimedia data over existing phone wires and coax cables.

IPTV service subscribers doubled between 2005 and 2006 and nearly tripled this year, according to an October Point Topic report for the DSL Forum. The same report shows North American numbers have quadrupled since June 2005.

CopperGate Communications announces that Sonaecom has selected CopperGate’s CopperStream technology for Sonaecom’s fast growing Clix SmarTV IPTV service.

CopperGate’s CopperStream chipsets, available from leading manufacturers embedded in set-top boxes, residential gateways and other equipment, provide a complete HomePNA 3 home networking solution. Products integrating CopperStream are being deployed today by major telephone service providers worldwide for IPTV applications as well as for Multi-tenant Unit in-building access applications.

Light Reading has an interesting article on why AT&T has choosen to use standard phonelines (HomePNA) for broadcasting their U-verse IPTV service throughout the home. AT&T ruled out both coax cable (MoCA) and the latest wireless standard, 802.11n, as options for U-verse.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has standardized the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance's HomePNA 3.1 multimedia home networking specification, making HomePNA the only internationally standardized existing-wire home networking technology. HomePNA 3.1 enables high-speed Internet services (IPTV, VoIP, data) over both phone wires and coaxial cables at speeds up to 320 megabits per second.

HomePNA 3.1 provides multi-spectrum operation, adding VDSL coexistence to the ADSL, POTS and broadcast TV channel spectrum coexistence provided by the HomePNA 3.0 specification. Multi-spectrum operation also allows multiple HomePNA networks to coexist on the same wiring.

HomePNA announced the release of HomePNA 3.1, a home networking specification that increases data rates over existing home wiring to 320 Megabits per second. Building on the industry-leading HomePNA 3.0 specification, it enables service providers to simultaneously distribute triple-play IPTV, voice and Internet data services as well as other networked entertainment data in the home at even higher speeds while keeping costs low. The specification is available to alliance members only.

New developments in Home Phoneline Networking (HomePNA) technology will give the market a boost, and help it become a viable player in deployment of home video networks, reports In-Stat. Migration is underway from the lower-speed HomePNA 2 to HomePNA 3, and worldwide shipments for HomePNA 3 will exceed 200% growth in 2007, the high-tech market research firm says.

HomePNA 3.0 currently supports speeds of 128 Mbps and guarantees quality of service for video, audio, and VoIP.