Video Over IP

Telecom operators have long toyed with the idea of running video over their present infrastructures, but now there's a couple of reasons why it might start happening on a large scale.

First, incumbent telcos are in a financial jam. They've got millions of tons of copper local loops in the ground and they're desperate to generate new revenues from it, to compensate for declining voice revenues.

DSL deployment provides part of the answer, but providing pure bandwidth isn't enough: It's bound to get commoditized sooner or later. So the smart money is already on the so-called triple play of adding video to the voice and data mix already provided by telcos, so they can move into bigger, richer markets like entertainment.

Second, a couple of advances in technology have made the concept of running video over copper local loops more of a practical proposition. One is that new video-compression technologies like MPEG4 AVC promise to squeeze commercial high-quality video into modest bandwidths of around 1 Mbit/s – very DSL friendly. The other is a potentially simple combination of Ethernet and IP to transport video across the core networks that feed the DSL periphery. This enables hugely cost-effective core bandwidth scaleability, which is essential to commercializing video on demand.

Still, the video market isn't exactly empty – think cable, satellite, and the local video store – and telco networks certainly weren't designed for video distribution. Consequently, plenty of challenges remain...

• How are telcos going to challenge the entrenched specialist opposition from a platform that originated over a century ago?
• Can they provide robust, high-quality services that people are willing to pay for?
• Can they do this on a large enough scale to turn video over IP into a big enough business to drive down costs?
• What's going on in the market today, and why are telecom service providers even interested in IP video as an application?
• What types of service provider are active in this space?
• How does IP video technology work?
• Is video over IP economically viable? How can demand be met cost effectively?
• Can video over IP compete with other delivery mechanisms, like digital cable infrastructure?

So many questions, so little time. Use this hyperlinked summary to find some of the answers:

• Telco Market Forces
  Why telcos need the triple-play of voice, data, and video

• IP Technologies I
  How IP telco video works

• IP Technologies II
  IP Multicast, IGMP, QOS

• Video Compression
  New high-compression standards promise to revolutionize the availability of video

• Showing a Profit
  How telcos can made the economics of video stack up

• Beating the Competition
  How IP video can compete with other technologies, such as digital cable

To view the archived Light Reading Webinar on which this report is based, click here.

— Andy Bray is Principal at Netrius Associates, a marketing consultancy firm based in the UK, and active in telecommunications and digital media.