MoCA 2.0 Spec to Be Released Next Month, Chipmaker Entropic Says

Entropic, which is the dominant supplier of MoCA chips, doesn’t expect “decent volume” of 2.0-compliant products until 2012, Henry said. In the first half, DirecTV is expected to ship MoCA 1.1-capable HD satellite receivers with Entropic’s EN2210 chips, while Brighthouse Network, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable begin expanding use of the technology in Motorola and Cisco set-top boxes, Henry said. Comcast also will join MoCA’s ranks, analysts said. Comcast has been testing MoCA 1.0 in the Philadelphia market since 2008, they said. Comcast sources set-tops from a range of suppliers, analysts said. The MoCA 1.1 chips are being used in connection with the rollout of multiroom DVRs, Henry said.

The MoCA 2.0 spec was expected at first to be set by mid-2009 (CED Dec 30/08 p1), but the release date was delayed as more cable operators prepared to use it, industry officials said. Industry officials called expectations of a mid-2009 release “optimistic.” More recently, Henry told analysts in an earnings call that Entropic expects “the second wave of MoCA growth to continue for the next couple of years, and starting in late 2011, we expect a third wave of growth to kick in” with the arrival MoCA 2.0 products.” Besides delivering HD video to multiple rooms, the MoCA 2.0 includes channel bonding, which combines two lines into a single channel, effectively doubling transfer speeds. MoCA 1.1 has 175 Mbps transfer speed.

The arrival of new MoCA vendors comes as Verizon’s deployment of the technology through its FiOS service slows. MoCA 1.0 and 1.1 technology is in about 2.9 million FiOS set-tops. Verizon added 153,000 net new subscribers in Q4, down from 191,000 in Q3, but up 49 percent from a year earlier. Verizon has said it expects to add about one million net new FiOS subscribers annually, or about 250,000 per quarter. Verizon’s has been Entropic’s only MoCA customer, under an exclusivity agreement. Verizon once accounted for 70 percent of its revenue, but that dropped to 33 percent in Q4 as customers were added, Henry said.

As sales to Verizon become a smaller part of Entropic’s revenue, DirecTV is expected to become a major customer. The satellite service provider began widely using Entropic’s channel stacking switch (CSS) chips in late 2009. The chips allow multiple video streams to be delivered into a home over one wire. The DirecTV supply agreement is expected to mean the use of up to three EN2210 MoCA chips in each subscriber household, because most have three satellite receivers, Henry said. That’s in addition to the three CSS chips also deployed, he said. While Entropic sells band translation switch (BTS) chips to EchoStar, it hasn’t delivered MoCA products. EchoStar is a member of the MoCA alliance, but hasn’t deployed the technology. The BTS chips support two tuners over a single cable to lower satellite TV installation costs.

This year, Entropic will ship the EN2510 MoCA chip, which will start replacing the EN2210 device, Henry said. The EN2210, which was designed for MoCA 1.0 and could be upgraded to 1.1, has a 150 MHz internal clock speed. The single-chip EN2510 was developed for MoCA 1.1 and has a 166 MHz internal clock speed. The EN2510 will be deployed with its first customer this year, said Henry, who declined to identify the STB supplier.

As it delivers new MoCA chips, Entropic expects to face new competition from Broadcom, which has developed rival products as part of the MoCA alliance. Broadcom chips are expected to arrive this year but “won’t change the competitive dynamic for us,” Henry said. “MoCA is something we know about and have been dealing with for quite some time,” he said.