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After  spending billions to upgrade their infrastructure for broadband communications, telecom firms are fast filling their wireless and fiber networks with video traffic. The video trend is pictured clearly at the NTXcomm conference in Chicago. At the four-day show that ends Thursday, telecom and tech companies are displaying a host of video services, such as:

• AT&T and Verizon Communications showed their progress rolling out Internet protocol TV systems to compete with cable TV. AT&T also debuted a service called Video Share that lets mobile phone users share live video between cell phones while having a voice call.
• Cisco Systems touted its ele-Presence virtual meeting system and other video services.
• Microsoft launched the latest ersion of its IPTV software platform, Microsoft Mediaroom.

“We’re entering a golden age of media, where consumers have easy, affordable and legal access to a wealth of news, information and entertainment content on every imaginable platform,” Bob Wright, vice chairman of General Electric (NYSE:GE – News), told show attendees in a speech Wednesday. GE owns most of movie and television conglomerate NBC Universal.

NBC’s multimedia coverage of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing will be a test case, Wright said. The broadcaster will offer live video of the games on several TV channels, the Internet and cell phones. It also will provide video-on-demand highlights and interactive features on the Web.

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg on Wednesday said his company’s FiOS TV service has attracted nearly 500,000 subscribers. It launched the subscription IPTV service in September 2005. Meanwhile, he said its FiOS high-speed Internet access service has reached 1 million subscribers. FiOS is a fiber-optic network that directly reaches millions of homes and businesses. Verizon’s FiOS will pass 9 million homes this year and 18 million before 2010, Seidenberg said.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson on Tuesday said his company’s U-verse IPTV service will pass 8 million homes this year and 18 million by the end of next year. It’s adding 600 new customers a day, he says. AT&T expects to be installing 10,000 per week by year’s end, Stephenson says. “U-verse is off to a great start,” he said, with 40,000 subscribers. “IPTV is where TV is going.”

Telecom companies this year are expected to spend $70 billion on network infrastructure improvements in North America. The carriers hope to recoup these investments with video services, which take up more capacity than audio or data services. According to Seidenberg, a single video requires 1,000 times the bandwidth of an audio file, and high-definition video requires up to 10 times the bandwidth of a regular video.

Wireless carriers and mobile phone makers increasingly are pushing video to cell phones.

• Apple’s new iPhone, for instance, will offer videos streamed from Google’s popular YouTube Web site, Apple announced Wednesday. The highly anticipated iPhone is set to go on sale June 29 at Apple and AT&T stores. AT&T’s Stephenson called the combination cell phone, video iPod and mobile Web browser a “game-changer” for the industry. AT&T, which has an exclusive multiyear deal to offer the iPhone in the U.S., has hired and trained hundreds of new employees to handle the expected rush, he says. “We’re gearing up for this big time,” he said.
• Motorola CEO Ed Zander said video is “the next killer app” for the telecom industry. His company’s next-generation Razr phone, due out this summer, will have a technology called “See What I See.” This capability will let users stream live video to another wireless customer while on a call.
• Meanwhile, Verizon is pushing broadcast quality television to wireless handsets with its V Cast streaming video service.
• Motorola, a major maker of cable set-top boxes, is looking to take its multi-room digital video recorder technology, called Follow Me TV, outside the home. That will allow people to view video from home on their mobile phones. Motorola also is looking to extend this technology to include music and photos.

Source: Yahoo News

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