12:25 PM -- ANAHEIM, Calif. -- TelcoTV -- This might work only in Russia, but the IPTV deployment model recently announced by Orca Interactive Ltd. turns out to be interesting. I had a chance to talk with Orca VP of marketing Sefy Ariely about it at the show.

With systems integrator BCC Co., Orca is wholesaling a shared IPTV infrastructure to the Russian equivalents of the Bell companies. (See Russians Do IPTV With Orca.)

"They offer IPTV to small pockets of subscribers and grow by adding a few thousand here, a few thousand there, instead of trying to do it for 1 million new customers," Ariely says. "They don't have to wait until they get 30 or 40 percent penetration."

BCC has set up a central headend that's feeding various regional headends. The Russian incumbent carriers can then take slivers of service from the regional headends. The incumbent keeps control of the subscriber relationship but doesn't have to maintain the network.

Ariely admits this might be a one-time-only opportunity for his company, driven by the nature of the Russian market and the presence of BCC, which knows the market. Still, as IPTV plans go, it's a little bit innovative.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading