The HomeGrid Forum and HomePNA have merged into one large group that will be focused on promoting the G.hn "any wire" technology standard for home networks.
Set to take on the HomeGrid Forum name, the newly combined group will promote the transition of the entire existing wireline-based home networking technology to the ITU-T's G.hn standard.
This merger comes as G.hn-based products are starting to ship. The new organization will serve as a guide for service providers that have G.hn network deployment plans or are migrating from previous-generation technologies. The new group will continue to support the installed base of over 40 million certified HomePNA devices during the transition.
Service providers such as AT&T (NYSE: T), which uses HomePNA to distribute its U-verse video and broadband services inside consumer homes, support the merger.
"As an active member of both the HomePNA Alliance and the HomeGrid Forum, AT&T sees the merger of these two industry organizations as a great step towards advancing and harmonizing these standards-based home networking technologies," said Eric Puetz, director of industry standards for AT&T, in a release.
HomeGrid Forum will now have 70 members, including 28 service providers such as AT&T and BT (NYSE: BT), and some of the largest OEMs, ODMs and retailers.
G.hn may have gained considerable interest as a way to integrate multiple wiring technologies, but it still trails more established approaches such as MoCA and HomePlug, which use existing coax and power wires. Regardless of the approach that comes to each home, a new report by IHS has forecast that the number of households deploying no-new-wire technologies will rise to 250 million in 2017 from under 70 million last year.
For more:
- see the release
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