2Wire

Last updated
2Wire, Inc.
Company typePublic.
Industry Consumer Electronics
Founded1998;26 years ago (1998)
Defunct2010
Fate Acquired by Pace plc (2010)
Successor Arris Group
Headquarters San Jose, California, United States
Key people
Pasquale Romano, President and CEO
Products DSL modems
Broadband Gateways
DVRs
Website 2wire.com

2Wire, Inc., was (between 1998 and 2010) a home networking Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) manufacturer that provided telecommunications companies with hardware, software, service platforms, and remote CPE management systems. The company was headquartered in San Jose, California, in the Silicon Valley. The company had employed approximately 1,600 employees globally, including 550 in R&D, sales and administration, 450 in customer care and 600 agency employees in five U.S. offices and an additional nine offices around the world by July 2010. The 2Wire HomePortal residential gateways were distributed by broadband service providers such as AT&T, Embarq, windstream and Qwest in the United States, Bell in Canada, Telmex in Mexico, BT Group in the United Kingdom, Telstra in Australia and SingTel in Singapore. In July 2010, Pace plc of the United Kingdom agreed to buy 2Wire for $475m (£307m). [1]

Contents

History

2Wire was founded in 1998 by Brian Hinman (who also founded PictureTel and Polycom), Pasquale Romano, Brad Kayton, Timothy Peers, and Tom Spalding. In January 2000, 2Wire delivered its first product, the HomePortal residential gateway, at that year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This broadband modem/router combination enabled DSL connectivity with home networking, firewall protection, and remote management capabilities. The following year, in January 2001, 2Wire delivered a wireless residential gateway.

In 2002, the company created a remote customer premises management platform called CMS. Later that year, 2Wire published the Open Gateway Management Protocol (OGMP). [2] The OGMP formed the basis for the TR-069 WAN management protocol subsequently ratified by the DSL Forum in 2004.

In early 2003, 2Wire delivered a wireless gateway with a complete system-on-a-chip architecture. Also in 2003, the company acquired Sugar Media, a digital media provider.

The following year, in the spring of 2004, 2Wire launched MediaPortal, a multi-service media platform that integrates DSL and satellite services. The MediaPortal-powered set-top box, combining television, digital video recorder, video, music, photo viewings, and messaging capabilities, was deployed by AT&T in 2006 as part of its Homezone service. [3]

In January 2006, 2Wire introduced the HomePortal intelligent Network Interface Device (iNID), an outdoor broadband residential gateway that supports VDSL2 and fiber to the premises (FTTP) connections.

2Wire acquired Kenati Technologies, an embedded device software company, in October 2007. [4]

As of June 2008, 2Wire had shipped more than 20 million residential gateways to its telecommunications provider customers.

In November 2008, 2Wire and Blockbuster Inc. developed and released MediaPoint Digital Media Player, a set-top box that plays video content from a home computer network. [5] [6]

Products

A 2701HG-B wireless gateway by 2Wire in California, USA issued by AT&T AT&T 2Wire 2701HG-B.JPG
A 2701HG-B wireless gateway by 2Wire in California, USA issued by AT&T

2Wire produces a series of residential gateways under the HomePortal name that enable home networking with interfaces that range from ADSL 2+ to fiber to the node (FTTN) (VDSL 1 and 2), as well as FTTP. The gateways are based on integrated system-on-a-chip architectures, and have native TR-069 support, as well as support for HomePNA, MoCA, USB, 802.11b/g/n wireless standards, and Web-based remote access.

The company also produces MediaPortal (not to be confused with the unrelated open-source software MediaPortal), a multi-service media platform that combines high-definition (HD) and standard-definition (SD) broadcast satellite or off-air TV programming with broadband services, DVR capabilities, music and photo storage and sharing, and home networking.

One of their gateways, the 2701, had issues with the power supply, prompting Bell Canada to proactively swap the power supplies to their customers in 2008. Some laptops with two types of Intel wireless adaptors exhibited wireless issues, which were fixed by an updated Intel device driver. [7]

The Pace 5012NV-002 Gateways were only available in Singapore for SingTel exStream Fiber Service and 2wire 2701 Series. In the rest of the world the brand is 2wire.

Affiliations

Partnerships

Related Research Articles

In telecommunications, a customer-premises equipment or customer-provided equipment (CPE) is any terminal and associated equipment located at a subscriber's premises and connected with a carrier's telecommunication circuit at the demarcation point ("demarc"). The demarc is a point established in a building or complex to separate customer equipment from the equipment located in either the distribution infrastructure or central office of the communications service provider.

Digital subscriber line is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), the most commonly installed DSL technology, for Internet access.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bell Internet</span>

Bell Internet, originally and frequently still called Sympatico, is the residential Internet service provider (ISP) division of BCE Inc. As of May 3, 2012, Bell Internet had over 3 million subscribers in Ontario and Quebec, making it the largest ISP in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet access</span> Individual connection to the Internet

Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is offered for sale by an international hierarchy of Internet service providers (ISPs) using various networking technologies. At the retail level, many organizations, including municipal entities, also provide cost-free access to the general public.

Singtel Optus Pty Limited is an Australian telecommunications company headquartered in Macquarie Park, a suburb in the Northern Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singaporean telecommunications company Singtel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet Protocol television</span> Television transmitted over a computer network

Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the source media continuously. As a result, a client media player can begin playing the content almost immediately. This is known as streaming media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GCI (company)</span> Telecommunications corporation operating in Alaska

GCI Communication Corp (GCI) is a telecommunications corporation operating in Alaska. Through its own facilities and agreements with other providers, GCI provides cable television service, Internet access, wireline (networking), and cellular telephone service. It is a subsidiary of Colorado-based company Liberty Broadband, a company affiliated with Liberty Media that also owns a 26% interest in Charter Communications, having been originally acquired by Liberty in 2015.

TransACT is the trading name of TransACT Capital Communications, an Australian telecommunications company based in Canberra which provides broadband internet access, fixed telephony, cable television services, and mobile phone services in Canberra and a subset of these services in Queanbeyan, throughout South-east New South Wales and in Victoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triple play (telecommunications)</span>

In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning, over a single broadband connection, of two bandwidth-intensive services, broadband Internet access and television, and the latency-sensitive telephone. Triple play focuses on a supplier convergence rather than solving technical issues or a common standard. However, standards like G.hn might deliver all these services on a common technology.

DrayTek is a network equipment manufacturer of broadband CPE, including firewalls, VPN devices, routers, managed switches and wireless LAN devices. The company was founded in 1997. The earliest products included ISDN based solutions, the first being the ISDN Vigor128, a USB terminal adaptor for Windows and Mac OS. This was followed by the ISDN Vigor204 ISDN terminal adaptor/PBX and the Vigor2000, its first router. The head office is located in Hsinchu, Taiwan with regional offices and distributors worldwide.

In telecommunications, cable Internet access, shortened to cable Internet, is a form of broadband internet access which uses the same infrastructure as cable television. Like digital subscriber line and fiber to the premises services, cable Internet access provides network edge connectivity from the Internet service provider to an end user. It is integrated into the cable television infrastructure analogously to DSL which uses the existing telephone network. Cable TV networks and telecommunications networks are the two predominant forms of residential Internet access. Recently, both have seen increased competition from fiber deployments, wireless, mobile networks and satellite internet access.

Fiber to the <i>x</i> Broadband network architecture term

Fiber to the x or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic cables are able to carry much more data than copper cables, especially over long distances, copper telephone networks built in the 20th century are being replaced by fiber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embarq</span> American technology company

Embarq Corporation was the largest independent local exchange carrier in the United States, serving customers in 18 states and providing local, long-distance, high-speed data and wireless services to residential and business customers. It had been formerly the local telephone division (LTD) of Sprint Nextel until 2006, when it was spun off as an independent company. Embarq produced more than $6 billion in revenues annually, and had approximately 18,000 employees. It was based in Overland Park, Kansas.

Technical Report 069 (TR-069) is a technical specification of the Broadband Forum that defines an application layer protocol for remote management and provisioning of customer-premises equipment (CPE) connected to an Internet Protocol (IP) network. TR-069 uses the CPE WAN Management Protocol (CWMP) which provides support functions for auto-configuration, software or firmware image management, software module management, status and performance managements, and diagnostics.

Internet in Australia first became available on a permanent basis to universities in Australia in May 1989, via AARNet. Pegasus Networks was Australia's first public Internet provider in June 1989. The first commercial dial-up Internet Service Provider (ISP) appeared in capital cities soon after, and by the mid-1990s almost the entire country had a range of choices of dial-up ISPs. Today, Internet access is available through a range of technologies, i.e. hybrid fibre coaxial cable, digital subscriber line (DSL), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and satellite Internet. In July 2009, the federal government, in partnership with the industrial sector, began rolling out a nationwide fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) and improved fixed wireless and satellite access through the National Broadband Network. Subsequently, the roll out was downgraded to a Multi-Technology Mix on the promise of it being less expensive and with earlier completion. In October 2020, the federal government announced an upgrade by 2023 of NBN fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) services to FTTP for 2 million households, at a cost of A$3.5 billion.

The Broadband Forum is a non-profit industry consortium dedicated to developing broadband network specifications. Members include telecommunications networking and service provider companies, broadband device and equipment vendors, consultants and independent testing labs (ITLs). Service provider members are primarily wire-line service providers (non-mobile) telephone companies.

An Intelligent Network Interface Device, more commonly known as an "INID", is a system that provides triple play media services to customer homes. The system provides digital subscriber line access, advanced TV, and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone services to subscribed customers. The term may refer either to a standalone external residential gateway or to a system of multiple components that together provide RG functions. Models include the 2Wire HomePortal INID and the Entone Crescendo INID. AT&T's U-verse brand of services employs the 2Wire INID as an alternative residential gateway.

EarthLink is an American Internet service provider.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AT&T Internet</span>

AT&T Internet is an AT&T brand of broadband internet service. Previously, AT&T Internet was branded as U-verse Internet and bundled with U-verse TV, which was spun off into the newly independent DirecTV in 2021. AT&T Internet plans powered by fiber-optic cable use the AT&T Fiber brand.

Hybrid Access Networks refer to a special architecture for broadband access networks where two different network technologies are combined to improve bandwidth. A frequent motivation for such Hybrid Access Networks to combine one xDSL network with a wireless network such as LTE. The technology is generic and can be applied to combine different types of access networks such as DOCSIS, WiMAX, 5G or satellite networks. The Broadband Forum has specified an architecture as a framework for the deployment of such converged networks.

References

  1. "Pace to buy US broadband company". BBC News. July 26, 2010. Archived from the original on 27 July 2010. Retrieved July 26, 2010.
  2. "Spec proposed for managing CPE routers and gateways". CommsDesign.
  3. "2Wire's gateway to follow SBC into living room". CNET News.com.
  4. "2Wire acquires Kenati Tech". The Hindu Business Line.
  5. Portnoy, Sean (November 25, 2008). "Blockbuster joins movie-streaming race with 2Wire MediaPoint digital media player". ZDNet Blogs. Archived from the original on 20 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-21.
  6. Dragan, Lauren (December 4, 2008). "Blockbuster Ondemand with 2Wire MediaPoint". Home Entertainment Magazine. Archived from the original on 26 December 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-21.
  7. "Internet Bell". Archived from the original on 2011-09-09. Retrieved 2011-12-21.