BellSouth IPTV: watching and waiting?
By Kevin C. Tofel 
posted Jan 19th 2006 8:30AM
posted Jan 19th 2006 8:30AM
While SBC and others are launching IPTV offerings in 2006, BellSouth isn't
sitting on their hands. The company is planning for a 2007 launch, which may provide time for lessons learned as well
as strategic partner choices. By mid-year, BellSouth expects to trial IPTV with over a thousand folks. Currently, the
technical trials are "aligned" with the Microsoft TV
platform, but there's no guarantees just yet. Although the company denies it, we're thinking that they're in a
"wait and see" mode to watch other providers using the Microsoft platform.What do you think: smart move for BellSouth to wait or will 2007 show them behind the IPTV curve?
The sizeable roll-out of ADSL2+ and VDSL variants has not yet taken place. It's likely that BS is aiming at the newest chipsets to become widely available for roll-out on their network. As a result they will probably be upgrading their equipment thru 2006 and offering appropriate CPE equipment to consumers for tests second half of 2006. Then begin formal roll-out early 2007. That's my guess. So in essence there is little "delay", it just takes time to make the system wide upgrades to support the high speed bandwidth necessary for IPTV.
Yo,
SBC is no longer, try AT&T.