Cut and pasted from the Frank C New TEch MB. Mentions VDSL. MRVC offers "award winning" (abet couple of year old)VDSL products
cbs.marketwatch.com{D5CFC774-E35...
U.S. phone companies slow on TV
By Jeffry Bartash, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:27 PM ET May 21, 2004
WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) - While European phone companies move to offer TV programming over their DSL connections, U.S. carriers are still figuring out their plan of attack.
Among the big American operators, only Qwest Communications supplies pay-TV service on its phone network -- and only in two major metro areas. Because of deteriorating phone sales and profits, Qwest (Q: news, chart, profile) has frozen further rollout, though the TV service appears to hold promise.
U.S. phone companies started dabbling with TV service a decade ago, but high costs and technological hurdles proved insurmountable.
In recent years, the technology has improved and costs have plunged. At the same time, big carriers such as Verizon (VZ: news, chart, profile) face a looming threat from cable operators that now offer phone service.
To combat the cable threat and boost sales, analysts say big phone companies eventually have to sell their own video.
"You want to go after their (cable) customers, too," said analyst Michelle Abraham of market researcher Instat/MDR, who just wrote a report called "Telco TV Taking Off." See report
The phone companies recognize their quandary. That's why Qwest, Verizon, BellSouth and SBC Communications (SBC: news, chart, profile) already offer TV through marketing deals with satellite-TV leaders Dish Network or DirecTV. BellSouth (BLS: news, chart, profile) even offers a cable-like service in a portion of its territory.
In the next few years, meanwhile, phone companies plan to install more fiber, especially in new buildings and neighborhoods. That will enable them to offer a cable TV-like service on their own wire.
Qwest, for example, can provide 250 channels in Phoenix, Ariz., over VDSL (voice-over-digital-subscriber-line).
Yet VDSL is still costly to deploy on a large scale in older neighborhoods and in places where the cable needs to be dug underground. Marketing TV service won't come cheap, either.
For those reasons, large U.S. phone companies are taking their time. Still, some analysts question how long they can wait.
Dave Burstein, editor of the industry newsletter DSL Prime, said phone companies could find themselves in grave danger if they let the cable threat grow unmolested. Customers would prefer to get their communications services from one provider.
"One wire is cheaper than two," he said.
For now, most of the action is taking place among small companies in rural areas, about 100 of which now offer TV service over phone lines, Abraham said.
It may be at least three or four years, analysts predict, before the industry heavyweights truly join that crowd.
Jeffry Bartash is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com in Washington |
