Triple play (telecommunications)

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In telecommunications, the triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of the two broadband services, high-speed Internet access and television, and one narrowband service, telephone, over a single broadband connection. Triple Play focuses on a combined business model rather than solving technical issues or a common standard.

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[edit] CATV

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At the turn of the century, cable companies were in a technical position to offer triple play over one physical medium to a large number of their customers, as their networks already have sufficient bandwidth to carry hundreds of video channels. Cable's main competition for television in North America comes from satellites, which cannot compete for voice and interactive broadband due to the latency imposed by physical laws on a geosynchronous satellite. Cable's main competition for voice and Internet access comes from telcos, which cannot yet compete for television in most markets because DSL over most local loops cannot deliver enough bandwidth.

As an interim marketing move while they install fiber closer to the customer, telcos such as AT&T are doing co-promotion deals with satellite TV providers to sell television, telephone, and Internet access services bundled for billing purposes although the services provided through a satellite link and the services provided through a phone line are not technically related. Telcos that own wireless phone networks are also including those as part of such billing-only bundles because most cable companies do not own wireless networks

Today, triple play services are offered by cable television operators as well as by telecommunication operators. It paves the way for these service providers to compete with one another. It relies on the assumption that an integrated solution will increase opportunity costs for customers who may want to choose between service providers. Interoperability is not a design target. The term is primarily used in the US.

[edit] Regulation

There are multiple and intense regulatory battles over triple play services as incumbent telcos and incumbent cable operators attempt to keep out new competitors -- since both industries historically have been regulated monopolies, regulatory capture has long been as much a core competency for them as have been prices and terms of service. Cable providers want to compete with telcos for local voice service, but want to discourage telcos from competing with them for television service. Incumbent telcos want to deliver television service but want to block competition for voice service from cable operators. Both industries cloak their demands for favorable regulatory treatment in claims that their positions favor the public interests. In March 2007 cable operators scored a major victory when the FCC overruled two state public service commissions by ruling that incumbent local exchange carriers must connect to VoIP services [1]. Regulators in South Carolina and Nebraska had been allowing local telcos to block Time Warner Cable from offering local phone service in their states. In the other direction, also in March 2007 the FCC limited the powers of municipalities and states over telcos that want to compete with cable TV companies [2]; consumer groups expressed displeasure with this FCC ruling because they fear telcos will only offer service to the richest neighborhoods (a major bone of contention between telcos wanting to offer television service and local governments is that local governments typically impose "build-out" and community access requirements so a cable provider is forced to wire the entire town within a specified period of time). All three Republican members of the FCC voted for this decision, while both Democratic members voted against it and one predicted either Congress or the courts would overturn it. In October 2007, The Hartford Courant reported that Connecticut regulators have ordered AT&T to stop signing up new customers for its IPTV service until they got a cable license; AT&T said they would fight this decision in court [3].

[edit] Telco

For telephone local exchange carriers (LEC), triple play is delivered using a combination of optical fiber and digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies (called fiber in the loop) to its residential base. This configuration uses fiber communications to reach distant locations and uses DSL over an existing POTS twisted pair cable as last mile access to the subscriber's home. Cable television operators use a similar architecture called hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) to provide subscriber homes with broadband, but use the available coaxial cable rather than a twisted pair for the last mile transmission standard. Subscriber homes can be in a residential environment, multi-dwelling units, or even in business offices.

Using DSL over twisted pair, television content is delivered using IPTV where the content is streamed to the subscriber in an MPEG-2 transport format. On an HFC network, television may be a mixture of analog and digital television signals. A set-top box (STB) is used at the subscriber's home to allow the susbcriber to control viewing and order new video services such as movies on demand. Access to the Internet is provided through ATM or DOCSIS, typically provided as an Ethernet port to the subscriber. Voice service can be provided using a traditional plain old telephone service (POTS) interface as part of the legacy telephone network or can be delivered using voice over IP (VoIP). In an HFC network, voice is delivered using VoIP.

Some service providers are also rolling out Ethernet to the home networks and fiber to the home, which support triple play services and bypass the disadvantages of adapting broadband transmission to a legacy network. This is particularly common in green field developments where the capital expenditure is reduced by deploying one network to deliver all services.

For existing multiple-dwelling-unit (MDU) buildings, where running fiber to each unit may not be feasible, telcos often use VDSL to connect individual units over existing copper through a central optical network terminal located in the existing telco closet [4] [5]. Over such a short distance DSL can deliver much higher bitrates than is possible running DSL over the local loop from the nearest central office as is common with basic DSL.

[edit] Wireless

Triple play has led to the term "quadruple play" where wireless communications is introduced as another medium to deliver video, Internet access, and voice telephone service. Advances in both CDMA and GSM standards, utilizing 3G, 4G or UMTS allows the service operators to enter into quadruple play and gain competitive advantage against other providers. The grouping together of services (as triple or quadruple play) is called multi-play.

Other advanced technologies such as WiMax or 802.16 has allowed new market entrants to achieve triple play. Many speculate that this means serious, new competition for established providers of bundled telecommunications services.

In September, 2006, Freedom Online, Inc. unveiled the first "all wireless backhaul technology" utilizing proprietary frequency division diplexing FDD and multi-polarity transmission technologies capable of delivering high bandwidth services, such as multi-play, without the use of the more expensive fiber optics or HFC. This allows them to offer multi-play at a lower cost to the consumer. The company claims their wireless service is more reliable than cable or POTS and touts the fact that their network survived 5 hurricanes in 2004 with "0" downtime, while cable, fiber and twisted pair were all down. In January, 2007, they launched the only "wireless to the desktop" wireless solution utilizing an indoor wireless gateway which doesn't require an outdoor antenna or dish. While the company's network does currently cover the Tampa metro area with broadband Internet access service using FDD and mutli-polarity transmission, in January 2007 they announced the first multi-play wireless services will be deployed in Aventura, Florida in the first quarter of 2007.

In January 2006, 2Wire unveiled the HomePortal 4000 series iNID (intelligent network interface device), an outdoor broadband interface, offering carriers a significant reduction in labor and maintenance costs when deploying bandwidth-intensive triple-play services.

[edit] Business

The challenges in offering triple play are mostly associated with determining the right business model, backend processes, customer care support and economic environment rather than technology. For example, using the right billing platform to address a variety of subscriber demographics or having the appropriate subscriber density to financially justify introduction of the service are a few factors that affect decisions to offer triple play service.

In addition to the challenges mentioned above, there are a number of technical challenges with regards to the rollout of triple play services. Voice, video and high speed data all have different characteristics and place different burdens on the network that provides access to these services. Voice services are greatly affected by jitter, whereas packet loss or packet reordering has a greater effect on video and data services. Using a shared network resource such as cable or DSL requires that the network equipment used employs quality-of-service mechanisms.

[edit] Literature

  • PRAXIS PROFILINE special edition: Triple Play - The future of media convergence [6]

[edit] External links

[edit] See also