Post-Hype IPTV Reality For AT&T, Verizon

Actually, not that sure the hype is in the past or that anyone is ready for day-in, day-out reality. It doesn’t help that the AT&T and Verizon services are rolling out much more slowly than anticipated thanks to regulations that didn’t instantly disappear just because they were inconvenient for the former Bells, software, hardware and the like. At least Verizon can say it’s ahead of AT&T, which starts its commercial deployment this summer after a contained trial in hometown San Antonio.
The rollouts bring their own issues, as Yankee Group’s Adi Kishore tells CNET: “Once the networks are rolled out and people see they work, the question becomes how will the phone companies compete. … They are coming into many markets as the third or fourth or sometimes even the fifth video provider. It’s a stiff challenge, and they’ll need to show some kind of differentiation.”
For Verizon, that differentiation may come from its “big pipe” with deep bandwidth, helping it stand apart from cable operators with crowded pipes.
TV Week: Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg: “We want customers to pick us over Comcast, Cablevision or Time Warner Cable. … If they pick us, [the cable companies] are out. If they pick them, then we’re out. Trying to share the house with a cable company is a difficult proposition.”
Update: DenverPost.com: Meanwhile, Qwest has a model video franchise agreement with 33 Denver-area communities. The agreement is a foundation; each deal still must be worked out separately. Among the details: whether Qwest will be allowed to cherry pick customers by delivering its signal to only certain areas. Cable competitor Comcast wants Qwest to have the same requirements — serve all customers. Qwest has yet to approach the city of Denver.

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