According to reports coming out of the recent meeting of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, cable executives said high definition TV or HDTV is "the ultimate weapon" against telco's IPTV plans. The cable MSOs say most of the PON architectures the telcos plan on using for their IPTV services can't handle multiple HD streams, but telcos say that isn't true. Some, like AT&T, say they'll add HD offerings by year-end. The cable execs also see only Verizon's FiOS service, which runs on a fiber network, as posing a threat to cable's fiber-coax architectures.
However, some cable execs say the industry can't throw caution to the wind: "Why is Lightspeed going ahead if it can't handle HD sources?" SuddenLink's CEO Jerold Kent asked. "We must be more judicious and careful in our investments in the cable industry, none of us are the size of an AT&T, so none of us can offer something representing the multibillion-dollar investment of Lightspeed and just say 'Oh well' if it doesn't pan out."
For more on the cable industry's strategies:
- see this article from the EE Times