So availability of very good content, the choice of killer applications, right business model for deployment of last mile connectivity, consumer friendly price points, and, most importantly forward looking regulations will drive IPTV deployment in India. Rajeev Mehtani, VP and MD, NXP Semiconductors India says, "We can look forward to some major alignments between the content industry and the Telco's. This is quite essential for a proper take-off of IPTV." The consumer is not concerned whether the channel comes through cable or IPTV but what matters is reliability, support and the flexibility, and that awareness and information regarding IPTV is not being created. It also depends whether the services have some differentiated content.

Today, the service providers have the infrastructure to take connectivity home. Telecom behemoths such as BSNL have 40 mn PSTN lines and the other private operators are building large metro Ethernet infrastructures. This will make them push harder to provide IPTV services as the same infrastructure can be used to take voice, video and data to home.

Broadband Hopes
Despite all the hype about IPTV, a great lot depends on the broadband rollout in the country. The figures are not very impressive but the industry players have come together to boost its growth. Year 2007 has been declared as the 'Year of Broadband', and the aim is to increase to more than two-fold the broadband and Internet users in the country over the next three years. Broadband Policy 2004 informs that there were approximately 6 mn Internet and 3 mn broadband subscribers in 2005. It is expected that this figure would rise to 18 mn and 9 mn, respectively, this year. By the year 2010, India hopes to have 40 mn Internet and 20 mn broadband subscribers.

BSNL has invested Rs 700 crore since 2005, in expanding its broadband network to cover 800 cities and towns. Over the next three years, it plans to invest the same amount each year to further expand its broadband network to cover the entire country. By December this year, its coverage is expected to extend to 1,000 cities, 20,000 villages and in rural areas, also deploying wireless broadband. With this, BSNL's subscriber base of 9 lakh connections is estimated to grow by 5 mn broadband connections this year and 6 mn broadband connections in 2008 and 2009. AK Arora, ED, MTNL says, "To boost the demands for broadband we have a fiber in the networks so that any bandwidth is available anytime on demand, we are introducing the requisite equipment. We plan to give 500,000 broadband connections initially. Our tariffs are already attractive but we plan to reduce per usage charges. Our aim is to give 1200,00 connections in 2007-08."

Nitty Gritties
"Customer expectations for video services are higher than data and voice services," says Rajeev Mehtani, vice president and managing director, NXP Semiconductors India, "Customers will not tolerate poor quality of sound and picture. Also, they will not tolerate network timeouts and other service outages which are still there in IP backbones."

Having the right business model to deploy the service and the consumer premise equipment is critical as price points may act as an entry barrier for people to adapt an entertainment service especially considering the choice of video rentals, analog cable, CAS and DTH options they already have.

AK Arora, ED MTNL, says, "IPTV provides additional services such as time shift. In Rs 600, a customer can have a telephone broadband and TV connection, which is real value for money. There are about 150 MTNL connections presently with very good quality and reliability. Today, people are looking to choose between DTH and CAS, and IPTV will give them a straightaway substitute for it."

India has often proved that getting the right consumer price points and the business model is extremely critical for the success of an industry or service. Both price points as well as business model are dependent on the regulatory aspects (license fees, roll out modalities as determined by the government/regulators, technological (last mile wire/wireless, right consumer premise equipment to receive the services) and arrangements regarding content availability (owning, sharing, licensing etc). A service provider needs to understand and overcome these challenges prior to deciding the business model or price points.

Availability of physical infrastructure and last mile to the consumer home is another critical factor. The bandwidth/speed of connectivity often determines the quality of reception and the number of different services a consumer can receive in his/her home. According to Prasad Babu, "In a way, most of the initial networks today are built based on infrastructure for a service using specialized devices for that particular service. The bottleneck is that the technologies that we deploy in the infrastructure are multi-play aware infrastructure, as the service providers have to think of the technologies which will evolve in the future as the last mile connectivity will continue to change." The access infrastructure will evolve but if the service provider wants to secure his investments and be able to deliver the services consistently, irrespective of any access infrastructure, he will have to look for technologies that will allow a single services delivery point. Technology and architecture that SPs choose will be a roadblock or a facilitator in proliferation of IPTV. Rajeev Mehtani says, "There is a dilemma between metro Ethernet and DSL, and whatever they build has to be future proof. This also goes hand in hand with developing price points, which need to be more or less similar to the existing price points of cable"

Differentiation or exclusivity of content will be one of the most important requirements for IPTV to be successful

The last mile has always been challenging. Deploying physical connectivity to home is a gigantic task. The wired versus wireless debate is still continuing. Recent wireless broadband announcements have further fuelled the discussions. The service providers have to take a roll call if they have to rollout services. Bandwidth prioritization, QoS issues are some of the technical roadblocks, which also need to be solved. Last but not the least, the vision of "Internet Meter" similar to the "Energy Meter" concept has to be enabled so that the customer finds it easy to adopt these services. Also, the IPTV equipment installed in homes should be very easy to maintain and operate. MTNL and BSNL have the majority of last mile copper in the country giving them an edge over private players. Private players don't have a large number of landlines and to have 5,000-10,000 customers in a city is not viable business. Yet this advantage is short-term as alternate technologies such as WiMax are making headway into the Indian market. In the end, service providers who provide value for money and 'Next Experience' in terms of content, applications, quality of service, and trouble free maintenance at affordable price points will succeed in capturing consumer mind share and hence the business.

Another constraint is content-differentiation or exclusivity of content will be one of the most important requirements for IPTV to be successful. Content that is exclusive and makes it more interactive for the viewer, doing the DRM, building an ecosystem for the content providers are the issues which need to be worked upon. Flexibility with the viewer and clever bundling of services will be critical for the service provider.

The Beginning
IPTV is here to stay but needs a critical mass before it really succeeds. There is the need for service providers, content providers, technology providers, and policymakers to come together and create favorable conditions for significant investments and profitable tie-ups. The rules have been laid-the game has to now begin.

Sonia Sharma
sonias@cybermedia.co.in