CHICAGO -- NXTcomm -- What's the next big thing that's going to ride down Verizon's FiOS network to consumer homes? High-definition video on demand, according to the company's executives attending the NXTcomm show this week.
After a press dinner on Monday, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) CTO Mark Wegleitner remarked that a high-def VOD service was "in the lab stage" and that the current fiber network "could support it right now."
Wegleitner added that "there is an internal time table for its launch that is currently being debated." So the launch date's not clear, the service specifics are still being refined, but Verizon is solidly moving toward the biggest, best offering possible in VOD.
During the NXTcomm related event in Chicago, Wegleitner also outlined to a room full of press the reasoning for the decision to go with an FTTP network and shed some light on future technological changes that will be coming, including a move beyond GPON.
"We are looking beyond GPON with a three- to five-year timeframe," said Wegleitner. The next step will be a move to wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), a technology that would give each customer its own wavelength to its home which translates to about 1 Gbit/s for each individual household. "WDM is ahead of us."
Wegleitner also said that Verizon is moving toward IPTV and that it has an evolution plan in place that would take "two years minimum" to begin. "It's going to be an all IPTV world within a three- to five-year time frame."
— Raymond McConville, Reporter, Light Reading