Video starts to flicker at Telecom 99

Although Telecom 99 could hardly be recognized as a cable event, a few vendors on the show floor unveiled new technologies that will let telcos compete against incumbent cable operators.

PixStream announced that its first U.K. customer, Kingston Communications, would launch cable service over its existing copper network this week. Last week in Geneva, the company teamed with iMagic TV and Sun Microsystems to demonstrate distribution of multimedia applications over DSL networks, including aggregating live video signals. The companies combine Sun's Netra servers and iMagic's software to allow carriers to provide digital TV and video-on-demand services along with Web browsing, e-commerce and messaging.

The companies, which count Bell Canada and NBTel among their early customers, are counting on competitive pressure from cable modems stealing high-speed data market share to push more telcos into the video market. Also, Microsoft's increasing interest in cable could provide incentive.

"Every time they make another move, we see an increased sense of urgency on the part of telcos," said Dave Caputo, vice president of marketing for PixStream.

Currently, the company uses fullrate asymmetrical or very high-speed DSL (VDSL) for the last-mile connection.

Also relying on full-rate DSL is mPhase Technologies, which said its Traverser digital video and data delivery system is out of the R&D phase. The company, which has deployed a test system at Hartwell Telephone in Hartwell, Ga., also said that it was researching including IP voice service over its platform.

That development won't take shape until at least next year, said Ronald Durando, president and CEO of mPhase. "Strategically, our whole idea is to get the product to market and then move up the chain to VDSL."