Three RBOCs peel back covers slightly on IP video plans

LAS VEGAS—SBC, BellSouth and Verizon all eventually will be offering IP video services that trump cable operators’ current offerings.

However, all three appear to be taking slightly different routes to that destination. And though none have offered detailed plans yet, but speaking at ATIS Technology Forum’s opening session as part of the USTA Telecom '04 show here, several provided small hints at what those services may look like.

Chris Rice, chief technology officer and executive vice president of services for SBC said the company was moving forward with a plan to provide four IP video streams to customers’ homes over a fiber infrastructure by the middle of next year.

Among the more interesting potential services the company is looking at is customizable channel line-ups and multimedia programming guides.

“When we looked at all the options we thought the broadcast model was too much of a me-too service,” he said. “Our intention is to offer IP video over a single fiber.”

And though the company is an early member of Microsoft TV’s partnership program, Rice said SBC is looking at numerous technology options including both MPEG-4 and Windows Media 9 compression.

Likewise, BellSouth is setting up an aggressive plan and is in the midst of testing various technologies in the lab, according to Bill Smith, CTO of BellSouth. Among the three RBOCs that were part of the massive fiber-to-the-premises RFP last year, BellSouth has been among the more open carriers in discussing its desire to do something other than traditional broadcast services.

“We’re getting a detailed work plan put together right now,” Smith said. “Early returns are quite promising.”

Verizon, however, is taking a slightly different approach, starting off with an RF overlay architecture to provide video services to customers. While not necessarily capable of delivering the new telco video models that rely heavily on on-demand content, the RBOC believes time-to-market issues dictate such a choice, said Paul Lacouture, president of the network services group for Verizon.

“We do believe IP video allows us to leapfrog cable, but we also think we can get a lot of market share just by competing,” he said.