Christopher Coles, Myrio CEO

Having labored for Qwest and AT&T Broadband--among others--Chris Coles, Myrio's www.Myrio.com new CEO, brings an operator's set of eyes to a vendor position. That, he says, is an advantage as he tries to sell Myrio's products--and more importantly, the entire concept of video-over-telephone. "I certainly enjoy the service provider side of the game, but this opportunity was too compelling to put aside," he said.

Isn't it an uphill struggle to move telcos into video?
The situation on the telco side for video remains a bit confused. We're having success with the independent operators; as to when the larger market situation clarifies, I think it's anybody's guess. It's tied to the recovery of capital markets and a view by the financial community that video is an imperative.

Is cable a true triple-play threat or is its current focus on video-on-demand pushing voice onto the backburner and giving telcos some breathing room?
It would be unfortunate to view the MSOs as video-focused and VOD as something that's going to consume them for a while, because I don't think that's the case. If you look at the valuations that the MSOs are pulling, there's a pretty substantial piece, perhaps as much as 20% of their value, that's attributable to cable telephony.

How do telcos deliver video?
I don't see any de-commit from DSL. The beauty of the VDSL solution ... is that you have symmetric data capability, 1 meg or better. You can re-purpose the bandwidth from video applications to data applications and back, as well as voice. Voice becomes incidental, not unlike what you see in the cable world. You're putting yourself on much more even footing with the cable operator, sitting in a pure switched digital environment that affords you the unique opportunity to be able to direct the bandwidth at a household level.

So you'd prefer VDSL?
We're really an IP video solution. Whether it's fiber-to-the-home or PON or Gig-E or DFM or VDSL or DSL, we can work across all of those. The good news for Myrio is we're in a spot where our software is relevant to whatever solution they come up with, as long as they're using their own networks.

Will telcos starve their vendors if they wait too long to deploy these new services?
It's definitely nuclear winter in the telecom sector. There's a pretty severe sort-out that we're in the midst of. On the other side, most will weather it and the return of venture funding will continue to foster companies that are able to create point solutions or next-gen solutions.