MOCA gains telco cred

The Multimedia Over Coax Alliance (MoCA) announced that both Cox and Verizon have joined as new members, and that both will join the group’s Board of Directors.

The addition of both companies gives MoCA a tremendous boost in the battle among various technologies to become the preferred method of transporting voice, data and video around the home. The group, founded a few years ago by Comcast, EchoStar, Entropic Communications, Linksys, Motorola, Panasonic, Radio Shack and Toshiba, now can boast of being the only group to have members from the cable, satellite and telco world, said Ladd Wardani, president of MoCA.

“Most of [the other home networking groups] don’t have any operator members at all,” he said. “We have cable, satellite and telcos, and that’s very significant. Those are the guys that will define the way to winning video. They’re the top of the food chain. They’re the ones that drive everybody below.”

MoCA technology utilizes the unused bandwidth on coax within homes. For a carrier such as Verizon that is deploying fiber-to-the-premises, the technology is key to getting signals from the side of the home to the television. As the company and other telcos begins exploring IP-based video that same technology can be used.

Among the other options are using in-home copper and, potentially, some wireless technologies. Coaxsys’ technology also is utilizing the in-home coax, though it is not part of MoCA because it believes it’s being driven in large part by direct competitor Entropic.

“You’re trying to get to the television and none of those are connected to the phone line,” Wardani said.