The Need For Speed Dilemma

Telcos looking to secure their long term prospects have no choice but to invest in triple play. The voice and the data services are available from all. IPTV however is not yet widely implemented by telcos.

Those telcos who are planning to offer IPTV are upgrading their broadband infrastructure to support speeds of 8mbps and above. But by doing so they are enabling Over-The-Top TV or the Internet TV, which is being positioned as the biggest competitor to IPTV right now. Although I have come across speeds as low as 250kbps as requirements for streaming video, but the typical sort of throughput you require is in the region of 500kbps.

Provided there is enough backbone capacity, a shared 8mbps connection should easily enable that kind of throughput. So there is a kind of dilemma here: if you don’t upgrade the connection speed you can’t offer IPTV, and if you do … you open floodgates for OTT TV that bypasses your IPTV offering.

The end result is your telco providing you just the pipe to enable apps. More on OTT TV impact on the industry later this week.