Triple-play services demand total network overhaul

Current infrastructure is unlikely to be good enough to deliver triple-play TV, internet and voice services

The delivery of triple-play TV, internet and voice services to the home may demand much more than the 20 to 30Mbit/s of bandwidth many say is necessary. As a result, subscriber households may face significant performance problems when trying to watch TV, make a voice over IP (VoIP) call and browse the internet simultaneously.

Speaking at this week's CommunicAsia IP technology showcase in Singapore, Bahaa Moukadam, vice-president of IP telephony at global carrier Spirent, said that the triple-play services currently being tested worldwide are very much in their infancy and will require extensive real-world testing before they are ready for commercial deployment.

"You can throw bandwidth at IPTV, but it means upgrading every fibre or DSL connection, from the backbone right down to the home, to deliver the 20 to 30Mbit/s minimum needed to carry even a couple of channels alongside voice and the internet,” said Moukadam.

Telecoms carriers may still face significant network latency problems that will reduce their ability to deliver good-quality voice and video during peak usage times, added Moukadam. As a result, they may alienate subscribers who will make quality and performance comparisons against existing cable or satellite TV pictures and find high-definition IPTV wanting.

Many cable providers, including NTL in the UK, plan to deliver triple-play by upgrading their networks to support the Docsis 3.0 specification, which bonds multiple channels together to deliver bandwidth up to 100Mbit/s now, and possibly even 1Gbit/s in a few years’ time.

Motorola Innovation Centre spokeswoman Lynn Chan said, "HDTV might need much more than 20 to 30Mbit/s - probably Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network [GPON] connections, which offer up to 2.4Gbit/s downstream and 1.2Gbit/s upstream bandwidth."

NTL bought fellow rival cable company Telewest and Virgin Mobile in order to converge TV, broadband, voice and mobile services, and is currently testing 100Mbit/s connections. BSkyB bought ISP Easynet to add broadband and phone services to its existing TV offering and BT promises to unveil a broadband TV service later this year.