Vecta on Broadband

Vecta Consulting

Vecta on Broadband

Broadband has recently come to include any "always on" data service whose rate exceeds 100 k bits per second.

Broadband really comes into its own at rates above 500K bits per second which support reasonable resolution video delivery to medium-sized displays.

Today television broadcasters, whether over cable, satellite or terrestrial, are converting their distribution networks to digital technology.

Broadband streaming, which uses Internet Protocol to deliver video, is a key piece of the technology jig-saw that provides a much more personal service than is possible with "one size fits all" broadcast and the slower, but broader, physical distribution alternatives. However televison, despite progress towards interactive TV, remains essentially focused on viewer choice amongst a few hundred channels supported by a limited amount of textual information.

The Internet PC, in contrast, selects among billions of pages offered by the Internet's 35 million web sites which increasingly include, admittedly poor quality, video alongside their text and graphics. Now that MPEG capture equipment is widely affordable, a host of websites have the potential to provide good quality user created content on a scale impossible to achieve with broadcast television.

The limited bandwidth of the communications pipe delivering the video is the main barrier to provision and takeup of services based on this technology. Few of today's PCs or TVs are connected to pipes of adequate size for an effective service to a full-size PC or TV screen.

Broadband is reaching more people day by day through digital cable modems, xDSL upgrades to copper telephone lines, satellite and wi-fi links, or digital Set Top Boxes. Some governments, notably Korea and Singapore, have invested heavily to accelerate access to education and information resources and have seen Asian broadband take-up lead the world; others, like the UK, have left rollout to the slow pace of their incumbent wireline telecom operator and the even more heavily debt-laden cable TV companies and, as a consequence UK take-up lags many European players, the US and Asia.

Who will win and how? Distribution specialists risk regulatory pressure keeping margins low while Content providers face pressure from talent costs. Will mobility compensate for reduced bandwidth and interactivity?

Broadband is changing things; cable and xDSL rollout are slowly widening the pipe to PCs, Set Top Box makers are beginning to incorporate Internet Protocol and, perhaps most important, 3rd Generation mobile and/or WiMax wireless systems will eventually provide the hundreds of kilobits per second necessary to deliver video to the smaller mobile screens. Many-to-many broadband services may then displace few-to-many broadcast providers.

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More info from:

Terry.Moore@vecta5.com

Vecta Consulting Limited, Mulberry House, 2 The Spinney, Broad Lane,
Cottenham, CAMBRIDGE, CB4 8RN
Tel: +44 (0) 1954 250222, Fax: +44 (0) 1954 252333

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