The day after

There's no better place in America to be talking about post-hype letdown than here in Chicago. After two weeks of non-stop nonsense about all things Super Bowl, the city is suffering from a collective hangover that isn't the least bit enhanced by bone-chilling temperatures that make you want to climb in bed and pull the covers over your head.

In telecom, of course, the hype cycles are much longer and the outcomes much less clear. Generally speaking, by the time a technology is being widely deployed, it's yesterday’s news, having already gone through the initial hype and inevitable let-down.

IPTV isn't exactly fitting into this mold. The technology has been deployed by independent service providers for the last two years, and by major players internationally as well, so it's no longer just hype. AT&T and Verizon are both ramping up their very different versions of IPTV as we speak, but that's more a matter of how quickly they can build out the required networks.

And that's where the story, from AT&T's perspective, seems to get blurry. Despite the fact that company executives continue to state that all is well with Project Lightspeed and the network is performing even better than expected, there continue to be reports of doubt and uncertainty, particularly where bandwidth is concerned. The most recent one surfaced in Business Week and, while not adding anything new to the debate, rehashed old concerns that copper phones lines won't be able to support multiple streams of high-definition TV.

Since AT&T appears to be sticking to its guns, it appears that only widespread market acceptance of its IPTV product will silence those who don't believe a hybrid fiber-copper network will compete with cable. By this time next year, we'll know who was right, the critics or AT&T.

And hopefully by the day after next year's Super Bowl, Bears' fans will be feeling much more cheerful.

E-mail me at CWilson3@telephonyonline.com.