OECD Rates Triple-Play
April 2006
The European Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued a report Multiple Play: Pricing and Policy Trends. This report looks at the pricing for bundled service that include voice, data, and video services. It includes an analysis of 25 European countries plus the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Korea.
The report identifies Free in France as offering the least expensive triple play package with unlimited voice calling at US$33 U.S. Its analysis stated that a similar package from Comcast in the U.S. would cost US$150.
The report also stated that Softbank in Japan offers the least expensive triple play package with per minute voice charges at US$29 per month. The price for a similar bundle from Telefónica in Spain is US$96 per month.
This report is dated April 7, 2006 and is available at: www.oecd.org/department/0,2688,en_2649_34223_1_1_1_1_1,00.html
Source: MRG, Inc., April 2006 IPTV Bulletin
FASTWEB Enhances Service
April 2006
FASTWEB the competitive IP TV carrier in Italy announced several enhancements to its service in April.
FASTWEB uses ADSL-2+ to deliver a data service that supports broadband data speeds of 20 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. Existing broadband subscribers can upgrade to the new higher performance for a one time charge of €80.
FASTWEB also introduced a network PVR service that it calls REPLAYtv that provides access to the previous three days programming on the free channels that it broadcasts. The REPLAYtv is included at no extra cost in its On Tv video on demand service, which costs €8 per month.
FASTWEB also announced recent agreements with Sony, Columbia, and Paramount for additional video on demand content. This supplements the content that it now offers from Universal, Dreamworks, Medusa, Buena Vista, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Mikado, Rai Cinema, and Instituto Luce.
For more information, consult our Winning Content Strategies – May 2006 report.
Source: MRG, Inc., April 2006 IPTV Bulletin
AT&T's Position
April 2006
Jeff Weber the VP who runs the IP TV project at AT&T stated at NAB that it will add 20 more markets by the end of 2006. It now offers 200 channels with video on demand in San Antonio today. It will use MPEG-4 do deliver video content. AT&T also stated separately that its San Antonio market trial would start in June 2006.
AT&T plans to add HD and DVRs in 2006 along with new set-top boxes and upgrades to its Microsoft software. It will also offer interactive features such as voting and games.
AT&T had stated last year that its market rollout would begin early in 2006. These announcements appear to be about a six month slip in AT&T’s IP TV service rollout.
{Note: analyst comments are italicized}
Source: MRG, Inc., April 2006 IPTV Bulletin
Will AT&T Back Off IPTV
April 2006
inkEquity Partners analystAnton Wahlman believes AT&T will scale back its Project Lightspeed deployment, because its 25-megabit-per-second speeds will not be sufficient to compete with cable.
He believes AT&T will put greater emphasis on its Homezone joint venture with EchoStar that combines satellites to deliver broadcast content and DSL to download movies to a hard disk on the set-top box.
Wahlman believes that AT&T will launch IP TV services in a handful of cities, but will only pass about one-half as many homes as originally planned. He expects that AT&T will switch from VDSL-2 at 25 megabits per second to possibly faster versions of VDSL2 running on shorter loops with potential for as much as 100 megabits per second.
He believes that AT&T will have plenty of excuses including the slow upgrade cycle to VDSL-2, Microsoft’s unstable software, lack of working HDTV, and probably the pending BellSouth merger. While Wahlman makes a good point, since AT&T’s VDSL strategy will not compete with cable’s DOCSIS 3.0, we expect that problems such as instability in the Microsoft software and the availability of MPEG-4 SD and HD set-top boxes may be significant in 2006. We expect that AT&T may slow down the announced pace of fiber to the node deployments announced in December 2005. Installing 3 million homes passed in 2006, 6 million in 2007, and 9 million in 2009.
{Note: analyst comments are italicized}
Source: MRG, Inc., April 2006 IPTV Bulletin
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