IPTV's Race Around the Globe

It is no secret that U.S. service providers were slow to get off the ground in deploying IPTV. Compared to their European counterparts — the traditional leaders in both subscriber volume and revenues — the U.S. landscape was fraught with fierce competition and technological challenges related to existing infrastructure. Going forward, however, the standings already are beginning to shift as each market deals with its own unique challenges and opportunities.

In the U.S., telcos are just now beginning to get over the first round of speed bumps and move into differentiation. Until this year, IPTV providers had been focused on simply getting their services deployed and achieving scalability. They essentially were mimicking the service of their satellite and cable competitors while dealing with issues that were new to a traditional telco.

“In the states, the battle lines are drawn between cable and telco,” said Andrew Morton, vice president and general manager of the Americas for Comtrend. “The wake-up call for a lot of telcos in the U.S. was the shocking statistic that the No. 4 voice operator in America was Comcast. That was a big wake-up call for a lot of individuals. They recognized quickly they had to formulate IPTV plans, and they are looking to Europe for what works. Home networking has been one of the biggest hurdles.”

Home networking, along with in-home installations, has challenged operators as they replace existing infrastructure for fiber or copper delivery. In the U.S., IPTV is traditionally delivered through Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HPNA), yet this can often mean four- to eight-hour installation times. Comtrend is pushing the UPA standard to the U.S. to deliver Ethernet signals over a power line, a technique that has proven successful in Europe for providers such as BT and Telefonica.

Once U.S. telcos are able to get around this issue of wiring, most will turn their attention to the software and hardware powering their services. Motorola, along with hardware vendor Amino, are two manufacturers that supply set-top boxes (STBs) to IPTV providers across the globe. Both have found that the hardware is essentially the same regardless of the country, but the unique feature sets required to remain competitive have raised the most difficult challenges.