Though there may be “an evolution” in the FCC's set-top plan, NCTA and its attorney, Helgi Walker of Gibson Dunn, met with new FCC General Counsel Howard Symons Monday to brief him on NCTA objections to the original set-top NPRM, said an ex parte filing posted online in docket 16-42 Tuesday. The briefing was a response to “statements made by proponents of the NPRM that they hoped to 'bolt on' aspects of the NPRM to the apps-based approach,” NCTA said. Incompas has suggested a combination of the FCC and pay-TV plans it called the “bolt-on” approach. “Any proposal -- even if termed 'apps-based' -- that includes unbundling and disaggregation of content and/or interactive services” would lead to legal challenges, NCTA said.

Napco Security Technologies will showcase its iBridge connected home products at CEDIA Expo next month in Dallas, said the company Monday in a news release. Napco will pitch dealers on a recurring revenue opportunity for its iBridge system, which controls temperature, lighting, locks, alarms and security cameras and allows consumers to receive text message video alerts via smartphone.

The Broadband Forum announced first specifications for a virtual residential gateway. The Network Enhanced Residential Gateway (TR-317) provides requirements for an end-to-end architecture, creating a flexible and agile environment, said the forum in a Wednesday news release. TR-317’s virtual customer premises equipment eliminates the need to provision and attach new services physically at an end user’s residential gateway, enabling service providers to do so from the cloud, it said. Service providers will be able to deploy services faster and personalize end-user packages, and quality of service could be enforced on a per device, per user and per service basis, the forum said. Broadband operators already are working on cloud-based virtual residential gateway services, said David Minodier, network architect at U.K. broadband provider Orange, which led development of TR-317. Network functions virtualization and software defined network techniques allow the delivery of such innovative services from a POP or data center to be implemented, which was not possible before, said Minodier. TR-317 ensures interoperability between the bridged residential gateway at the customer premises and the virtual gateway hosted in the provider’s cloud infrastructure, he said. TR-317 also gives telcos a way to upgrade existing gateway models virtually, enabling new features and services, he said. Local services will be shifted from the home to the network, giving users reliable and expandable virtual storage, which can be provisioned on a “pay-as-you-grow” basis, said the forum. In the TR-317 world, the machine-to-machine (M2M) home automation box will move to the network, “providing enhanced and easily-upgradeable M2M services,” the forum said. Parental controls can be enabled virtually, along with diagnosis, troubleshooting and maintenance services, it said.

ATIS said it's developing the North American requirements and high-level architecture specifications for an LTE-based earthquake early warning system (EEWS) on cellular networks. “This effort was spawned in support of California's proposed EEWS and is anticipated to initially focus more broadly on a solution for the west coast of North America,” ATIS said in a news release. “The work will address use cases, end-to-end system requirements and architecture, mobile device behavior requirements, and security considerations. It will also include an analysis of existing standards to determine if additional enhancements may be required.” The FCC recently sought comment on how quickly carriers could transmit warnings (see 1605100054).

TiVo had harsh words for a pay-TV set-top box proposal offered as an alternative to the FCC unlock-the-box plan, while NTCA expressed caution, in separate lobbying meetings disclosed this week in docket 16-42. The pay-TV plan would “deprive consumers” of features they already have under CableCARD and offer less choice than the FCC plan, TiVo said in a meeting Thursday with staff from the offices of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and Chairman Tom Wheeler and to Chief Technologist Scott Jordan. The pay-TV plan doesn't allow third parties to offer competitive user interfaces, home recording, or in-home streaming of content, TiVo said. The proposal also would require third-party box makers to make deals with every pay-TV carrier, “a difficult if not impossible task for retail manufacturers,” TiVo said. The company said it's “not wedded” to any particular approach to creating a competitive retail set-top market. NTCA also discussed the pay-TV proposal in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly Monday, saying the compromise plan is “not a silver bullet.” Both the FCC and pay-TV plan would raise costs for small cable operators, and the agency should exempt them from any rules, NTCA said.

Broadband service providers need to invest in advanced home Wi-Fi systems, such as Wi-Fi mesh networks, or run the risk of customer churn, said an ABI Research report Wednesday. It forecasts more than 831 million households will have residential Wi-Fi networks in 2021. Mesh network systems improve Wi-Fi coverage by relying on multiple access points in the home, said analyst Khin Sandi Lynn, but their cost could price some residential broadband users out of the market. A Wi-Fi mesh system with three access points ranges from $300 to $500, said Lynn. U.S. cable operator Midco provides AirTies’ mesh network to its residential broadband customers starting at $7.95 per month and $2 for additional access points, she said. Network management systems, such as ServAssure by Arris and the cloud-based performance monitoring system Remote View by AirTies can also help service providers improve the Wi-Fi experience, said Lynn. The systems allow service providers to perform access point installation, network analysis, and troubleshooting remotely, cutting costs for providers and waiting time for consumers, she said.

The set-top compromise to build pay-TV apps on an open HTML5 standard is a "common-sense, technology-friendly replacement" plan, FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said in a blog post. Noting the plan from NCTA and some pay-TV programmers and carriers (see 1606160059) has generated some criticisms -- that consumers aren't familiar enough with apps, they don't provide a unified search or fix unreliable equipment, and they won't drive down monthly rent prices -- O'Rielly then tackled them individually. Data shows apps are widely used, and customers wouldn't be required to go with apps because they could keep their set-tops, he said. Section 629 of the Communications Act has no unified search requirement, and users might not even care for that option, O'Rielly said: "Why obsess over a feature that may or may not have little to no consumer value?" Apps also will make the whole issue of equipment and its reliability moot, he said. O'Rielly called the prospect of having to pay monthly fees for apps "farfetched" but said the FCC could work with industry to ensure they're free. He has been critical of the FCC's own set-top proposal, including at a broadcasters conference last week, the remarks of which were posted online shortly Monday before his blog post (see 1606270066).

The FCC set-top box proposal is “a play for the FCC to get its hooks into video apps,” said Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in a speech to the New Jersey Broadcasters Association released Monday. “It would be harmful for almost every type of business involved in producing or distributing video content today.” The FCC plan (see 1606270069) would devalue content and expose it to theft, O'Rielly told the association Thursday: “The good news is that many parties, including NAB, are doing a very effective job raising these concerns in Washington. ... There is still time for the Commission to reverse its course, and I sincerely hope that it will do so.” O'Rielly also said the FCC should work to eliminate pirate radio: “The Commission must do all that it can to increase enforcement efforts and protect licensed radio stations from these insidious harmful operators.” O'Rielly said he's meeting with legislators “to change current law as it pertains to pirate radio, including addressing those people or companies that facilitate pirate stations via housing and funds, increasing the fines and penalties for violators, and easing the process for seizing pirate equipment.” O'Rielly said arguments that pirate radio addresses underserved segments of the population or provides opportunities for minorities should be disregarded. “Our society is not one in which citizens are permitted to pick and choose which laws they want to follow and ignore the others,” O'Rielly said. “We are not a candy shop.”

The New York Code + Design Academy (NYCDA) is working with Amazon on a developer program for Alexa skills. Strayer Education, parent company of NYCDA, is offering a course, Voice Activated Apps 101 with Amazon Alexa, billed as the first in-person training on building Alexa skills in the Ruby programming language. Enrollment is open for the eight-week NYCDA/Amazon course that will be taught Aug. 9-Sept. 27, 6:30-8:30 p.m., at NYCDA headquarters at 90 John St. in New York. Developer and NYCDA co-founder Zach Feldman will teach the class.

Remocam introduced a wide-angle wireless video doorbell that lets homeowners access and answer their doors from a smartphone, anywhere, via Wi-Fi, at CE Week in New York Wednesday. The RemoBell’s wide-angle lens displays a more defined image of who’s at the front door than the standard fish-eye lens, said the company. The Android- and iOS-compatible doorbell operates on AA batteries and records in 720p resolution. Additional features: advanced motion sensing via body heat, infrared night vision, two-way communication via the app and an activity log that records videos from answered and missed rings and motion detection, said the company. Cloud-storage fees are $2.99 per month or $29 a year.