By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
September 9, 2010

Communications solutions provider Alcatel-Lucent is determined to set local IPTV adoption in motion, thereby further empowering broadband growth in the country, company executives remarked in a media briefing recently.

Through Alcatel-Lucent’s “application enablement” solutions, a kind of middleware offering which allows broadband service providers to participate in the value chain, telcos would be able to move out of being just dumb pipes and into providers of content for users.

Through MiViewTV, the IT vendor’s next-generation IPTV and multimedia solution, service providers will be able to create new streams of revenue simply by bundling IPTV services to their basic broadband offerings, the executives shared.

“We need to do a reality check. Revenues [for services] are slowing down, and profits are suffering,” related Raymond Tan, director for customer solutions, Alcatel-Lucent. “The rising popularity of social networking sites is also undermining the demand for text messaging services.”

Tan added that the market is close to saturation due to these factors, and service providers can’t grow further just by adding new subscribers, cutting prices, or offering unlimited plans. “[Because of those], networks are now being reduced to dumb pipes,” he pointed out.

With these in mind, Tan suggested for telcos to ride the wave of recent trends in order to open themselves up to new opportunities. Freely downloadable content, streaming video, social media, and smartphones, are some of the recent technology finds Tan mentioned.

“The demand for services is growing more and more,” Tan said. “Networks, application developers, and content providers must interoperate and collaborate to broaden the value they provide each other.”

Tan claimed that video is adding a new dimension to service providers, especially due to its unique nature and requirements. “IPTV is a way which consumers can spend their time on,” he explained. “The audience’s attention span is longer on TV, so that is where they should focus monetization.”

Currently, no telco firm in the country is offering its own IPTV solution, but Tan said that they “see the market is ready.”

Considering that most broadband connections—often a requirement for IPTV to flourish in the market—are widespread in urban centers, and the turtle-pace speed of Internet connections in the country, Alcatel-Lucent remains bullish about its IPTV plans for the country.

For one, good infrastructure has been setup in urban areas, according to Jonathan Goh, president and managing director of Alcatel-Lucent Philippines.

Despite the absence of fiber-optic lines in the country, Goh said their solution can still work with copper connections. “Copper can do the job of standard-definition TVs, so there is no marked difference,” he emphasized.

Additionally, the firm’s “adaptive streaming” capability ensures that content is delivered to users even on low-bandwidth DSL lines. “The solution adapts automatically to the user’s speed of connection,” he related.

With these features integrated in their offering, Goh said they are confident of the potentials of IPTV in the country, and that they are already in talks with various providers of the service.

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