Amedia Networks is currently perfecting an Ethernet broadband aggregation switch and home gateway device that can deliver up to 100MB of bandwidth to fiber-connected households, according to the company. While the company said every home, apartment, school and business can receive its own secured 100MB connection over fiber for voice, data and video services, its business strategy is built on the belief that the ongoing battle for the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of U.S. consumers between cable, DBS and telco interests will ultimately center on providing HD content.
Providing only about 20 MB to the home isn't enough to satisfy the typical U.S. home that boasts, on average, at least three TV sets, according to the company. It's not inconceivable, it reasons, to have two or three HD programs streaming into the home simultaneously.
Armedia is the relatively new name of a firm started more than a decade ago and which went public in 1997, according to published reports. Known for most of its history as TTR Technologies, its name was changed to Amedia in 2004. The company hired several execs away from Lucent in the last year or two, and has now gone back and contracted with Lucent's Bell Labs to build Ethernet-based gateway and aggregation switch products for the home.
Amedia, with a current staff of about 30, will focus its business right now on the United States, China, South Korea and Brazil. One of its first customers is Tai Long Communication of China, which serves about 50,000 subscribers.
