Craig: What I was answering was the question of when the RBOCs will really start offering video services instead of the halfhearted attempts they currently have been doing. I believe we will see the RBOCs as providing the infrastructure (the pipe so to speak) and ISPs providing 'Triple Play' services. The key here is phone lines just about terminate in front of almost all buildings in the U.S. with the exception of backwoods facilities, where cable still only covers metro and suburban areas and not rural areas. That is where the RBOCs and independents have their strength and could be real competitors to the cable companies. However, I do not believe the RBOCs will seize on the moment. I believe we will see the RBOCs as providing the infrastructure (the pipe so to speak) and ISPs providing 'Triple Play' services. That is what is happening in the international world. The big push is for 'Triple Play' services, VoIP, Internet Services and Video Services. This is currently happening in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. My question has been for the last 10 years is why not here? We exhibited that capability back in 1996, and the Telcos still have not done anything with this capability. Granted, VoIP was not used, current digital voice was what was demonstrated using NUKO and later BBNC products to provide the video services to the VDSL network. A good example is the RBOC lack of drive to bring these new and exciting services to the avg. consumer is DSL services. Here I am in Silicon Valley, the heart of most DSL technology and I did not get DSL service until 2001, and that was from DirecTV. Even though DirecTV was using SBC lines, SBC did not offer me the service until DirecTV decided to get out of the business. To me, that was ridiculous. Ralph Ralph P. Manfredo President & CEO rmanfredo@xxxxxxxx ************************************************************************ BroadBand Networks Corporation 2530 Berryessa Road, No. 237 San Jose, CA 95132 Phone: 408.988.2060 Fax: 408.988.2188 www.bbnc.com Leaders in MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video over ATM and IP Networks ************************************************************************ -----Original Message----- From: opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:opendtv-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Craig Birkmaier Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 5:25 PM To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [opendtv] Re: SBC Joins the Convergence Crowd At 2:30 PM -0800 1/4/05, Ralph P. Manfredo wrote: >There are two reasons for the numerous attempts by both Pacific Bell and >SBC's failure to get into the video delivery business. > >1. Management is dial tone oriented, and thus they are afraid to provide >non-dial tone service because they might fail and loose their jobs > >2. They have shareholders who are only interested in profit, so management >is unwilling to spend the money to get into the video delivery business >because of the cost which will affect the bottom line. > >Until RBOC management gets some intestinal fortitude, they will always be >bungling a video delivery solution. They will wake up when the cable >companies start getting aggressive on offering dial tone to their customers. >Who knows, we may see the end of the RBOCs when that happens, and it will be >their own fault. Or there could be another scenario... What if it is the tight coupling of content and carriage that is in danger of extinction? The telcos have always done best selling bandwidth, not the content that is carried. What if content owners are able to bypass all of their existing distribution "partners" and simply deliver products to consumers via IP networks. In other words, the consumer just pays for bandwidth, and they buy content in an open marketplace, not unlike the Internet? What if the dark fiber that terminates in front of my house suddenly becomes an "all you can drink bit pipe" for say $50/month? Regards Craig ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.