As we’ve said previously, the cable industry has spent the last few weeks gearing up for today’s culmination of the DTV transition.  And at midday Friday, the transition itself seemed relatively uneventful.  It’s an interesting day in that there’s a “rolling” transition underway, across four time zones.

If you put aside time zones and look just at “dayparts,” here are the number of stations and time of day they told the FCC they would switch off their analog signals:

• midnight to 6:00 a.m. –   186 stations
• 6 a.m. to 12 noon – 239stations
• 12 noon to 6:00 p.m. -  155 stations
• 6 p.m. to midnight – 391 stations

All things considered, the turn-off of analog seems to be going as well as could be hoped. Cable personnel in the field have reported technical issues for about 15 broadcast stations, in markets within states including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, and West Virginia.

In most of these cases, the issues involved broadcast signals temporarily going off the air – where analog has been turned off but for some reason the digital transmission has failed. We think there has been only a minimal impact on cable subscribers. In some cases, the same broadcast stations are delivering their signals to cable “headends” through a fiber line, so even if there’s a problem with over the air transmission, the station’s signal is still getting to cable subscribers. In cases in which signals have gone down, but where that fiber feed may not be available, cable customers along with over the air viewers have temporarily lost access to those broadcast signals.

Broadcast and cable engineers have been quick to pounce on those problems, however, and most of them have been resolved in a matter of hours.

We’re keeping a close eye on the situation through a contingent of dozens of cable executives at corporate and field-based locations.  Cable execs are trading email updates with an extensive list of colleagues around the country.  Those same people are jumping on conference calls once a day to compare notes.  We are talking regularly with FCC officials, both by email and conference calls.  And we’re regularly exchanging information with our counterparts at trade associations representing broadcasters and consumer electronics manufacturers.

That same regimen will be up and running through the course of the weekend as well, so we’ll continue to post on developments as they occur.  We’d be interested in knowing any of your experiences as well, so please comment away.

One of the big trends in technology is mobility. It’s not enough to have a gadget or a service, you have to be able to take it with you and use it on-the-go.

This has not been the traditional province of cable operators, who have typically provided services to homes and businesses. But that’s been changing recently as operators look to provide community Wi-Fi.

Last September, Cablevision began deploying thousands of Wi-Fi access points in its Long Island, Connecticut, Westchester/Dutchess and New Jersey service areas. Subscribers to Cablevision’s Optimum Online high-speed Internet service can then connect to at no additional cost. “Optimum WiFi” is located in “high-traffic and commercial locations like downtown areas, parks and other outdoor locations,” as well as “hundreds of commuter rail platforms and station parking lots.”

(I’m constantly whipping out my iPod Touch to check for Wi-Fi and I’ve found Optimum hotspots in strip malls in Long Island.)

Yesterday, Cablevision announced “its Optimum Online customers have accessed the Internet more than two million times for free over Optimum WiFi, and are averaging more than one million minutes online per day.”  Plans call for the Optimum WiFi network to be completely deployed throughout its New York-Connecticut-New Jersey footprint by early next year.

Earlier this week, a similar service was announced out west in Oregon. BendBroadband announced plans to provide wi-fi access to their high-speed Internet customers at major public parks, the Deschutes County Fairgrounds, the Les Schwab Amphitheater and other popular locations in Bend, Redmond and Sisters.

Detailed information on Optimum WiFi and interactive network coverage maps are available online at www.optimumwifi.com. Residents of Central Oregon can cast their vote for additional Wi-Fi locations at www.bendbroadband.com.

It’s been more than a year now since I first mentioned deployment of wideband Internet access based on the DOCSIS 3.0 standard. With the use of channel bonding, cable operators are able to offer speeds exceeding 100 Mbps downstream.

The first launch was in the Twin Cities market in April of 2008. Since then, it’s been popping up all over America: Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, Indiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York.

Now, Washington, DC will also be benefiting from more robust bandwidth. In May, Cox deployed its Ultimate Internet service to residential and business customers in Northern Virginia. Today, Comcast announced that its Extreme 50 service will be launched in the DC Metro area. The service is first being offered in the Anacostia neighborhood, with the entire area expected to have wideband by year’s end. Most existing high-speed Internet customers will see their speeds double for no additional cost.

Now that cable is the broadband leader in Our Nation’s Capitol, you can look for continued wideband deployment by operators all over the country. Stay tuned!

When the first group of 600+ over the air stations made the transition from analog to digital broadcast in February, their transition was met with relatively few, and entirely manageable complaints.

In exactly one week, the rest of the nation’s full power, OTA stations will make complete the transition, capping an effort that began many years ago.  The transition has not been without its challenges, but it represents the culmination of a lot of hard work by broadcasters, consumer electronics companies, subscription television services, and government at every level.  Cable, for its part, has contributed hundreds of millions in advertising to educate consumers on about the transition and so they will continue receiving signals next week.

We have also coordinated efforts between cable engineers and MSTV – the group representing broadcast engineers – to limit any technical problems.  That effort began over a year ago and identified issues early on that might have impacted the transition.  When the first stations moved from analog to digital in February, NCTA Science & Technology office  staffed a “war room” to give cable engineers an opportunity to report on activities in the field. We exchanged information with MSTV to address issues as they arose and in virtually all of such cases, the impact on cable carriage of the broadcast signal in question was minimal, with any problems being resolved in a matter of hours.

In addition, as Kyle McSlarrow noted Wednesday in his remarks before the FCC, cable also initially organized the DTV call center operation and contributed significant sums in cash grants to community groups to educate their constituents or assist them.  In addition, we placed tens of thousands of dollars in advertisements to reach at-risk groups with information.

Cable has gone beyond the call to ensure every American, not just our customers, is aware of, and is ready for transition.  We did this because we realize the transition is an important milestone for our country and we want it to be a success.  Our industry has worked tirelessly and with every level of government to guarantee that next week’s switch goes as smoothly as possible.

Should you, or anyone you know have questions or concerns about the switch, call 1-888-CALLFCC (1-888-225-5322).  The DTV hotline will be able to assist you.

For months now, we’ve been talking about the importance of broadband in America. We’ve argued that government funds could be used to increase broadband adoption and use, and that broadband facilities should be extended to unserved areas.

But it’s important to remember that security is also a key element of America’s broadband future. Therefore, we at NCTA were pleased to see this news:

President Obama turned his attention last week to the nation’s cybersecurity weaknesses. He announced plans to develop a new national cybersecurity strategy and appoint a government-wide cybersecurity coordinator to fight this menacing threat.

In a brief speech on Friday, Obama said the strategy will be developed with help from private experts, and the administration will invest in “cutting edge” cybersecurity research and development.

Strong partnerships between the communications industry and the government will help ensure that our national communications infrastructure is robust, reliable, and secure.

The cable industry is absolutely committed to the ongoing protection of its customers – including consumer, commercial and governmental – from cybersecurity threats. We look forward to working with the government on this important issue.