Comments on: Will Alcatel regret its bet on Microsoft’s IPTV

By: Reinvent TV

Reinvent TV — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 16:19:25 +0000

Alcatel and Amdocs to deliver joint IPTV solution

Alcatel has agreed to work with customer service systems company Amdocs to deliver a joint solution to support internet protocol television and other next generation broadband services …

By: Jim White

Jim White — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 15:25:14 +0000

The above comment is right on. Microsoft is providing a platform. The traditional middleware vendors that have been around for over 6 years were not really offering a software product, but video system integration (VSI). Alcatel invested in two of these VSIs and as a result is now the leading industry expert on IPTV deployments, based on its experience during the “experimentation” phase. But the existing “Heath Kit” approach, where every solution is a custom development, will not produce the market-changing impact that our customers need if they want to compete in mass-market television services.

The marketing hype will tell you that Microsoft is focussed on delivering âbetterâ? TV and Alcatel wants to deliver a user-centric triple play experience. But it’s not only hype. “Better TV” will really begin happening with the integration of more applications onto a standard platform. Our strategy is to focus on developing applications that converge communications and entertainment services for a better end-user experience, and leave the IPTV platform to Microsoft to manage. This approach should greatly accelerate the availibility of mass market IPTV services. Meanwhile, as the comment above suggests, introducing a successful television service on a Telco’s wireline network will also cause significant network investment and pull-through sales of many of our products in the access, aggregation, edge and core parts of the network.

Jim White, Alcatel

By: Mark Sigal

Mark Sigal — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 18:30:35 +0000

Well, you raise reasonable points about the risk factor of Microsoft’s IPTV middleware actually working but I am guessing that Alcatel has come around to the logic that this is ultimately more of a platform play than a middleware play (i.e., the right content, well integrated into an IPTV platform with visual tools support on on multiple dominant device platforms) in a segment that Microsoft can’t afford to lose.

Alcatel is obviously betting that having a 1+1=3 story wrt integration of infrastructure gear with this wave is better gravity to ride than living solo on the island of Alacatel. Besides, Microsoft usually figures things out by 3.0, right? ;-)

Plus, it’s not uncommon for them to pony up loyalty dollars and unleash the marketing machine for such converts.

By: Foofy

Foofy — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 17:11:13 +0000

JC, the contact form has been fixed. :)

By: Thomas Hirsch

Thomas Hirsch — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 16:09:36 +0000

Is FTE/MSFT alliance relevant to ALA?

Microsoft Expands Phone Push
With France Telecom Partnership
….

By: JC Francois

JC Francois — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 14:22:34 +0000

Om,

I tried to use http://gigaom.com/contact/ but the form is broken.
I’d be happy to share some thoughts with you on the DSL modem business question that you alluded to.