Deutsche Telekom for Half Hearted IPTV

Deutsche Telekom is planning to launch its Internet-based television service next month but without interactive services. Company is starting with soccer and some other television programs and interactive services will be added later in the current year, such as video on demand, electronic program guides and on-demand TSTV (Time Shifted Television). DT's IPTV service is part of a triple-play offering, which includes telephony and high-speed Internet access. It will be delivered over a very-high bit rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) network. The VDSL network has already been rolled out in 10 cities like Hamburg, Stuttgart, Munich etc, offers enough speed to support HDTV and 3D TV. Deutsche Telekom has deployed Microsoft's IPTV software platformfor its VDSL-based T-Home service offering. The Deutsche Telekom deal is MicrosoftÂ’s second largest with the largest presumably being the deal with AT&T for $400 million. Deutsche Telekom has chosen Linksys as its hardware partner for launching TV services via the Internet. Company's T-Com division will use routers from Juniper Networks Inc. to power the VDSL2 platform. At the launch of service around 100 broadcasters are expected to be offered.

Deutsche Telekom expects to be able to offer VDSL-based triple play services, including IPTV, to 3.1 million households in August and as many as 6 million by the first quarter of 2007. Gartner estimates that the number of German households subscribing to IPTV, however, will reach 47,000 this year and grow to 2.8 million by 2010. This looks more reasonable as evident from market dynamics. German cable operators are also gearing to offer their own triple-play services by upgrading their existing network infrastructure. There are 18 million cable TV households in Germany with 1.9 million digital subscribers. About 15 million German homes do not subscribe to pay-TV, instead use satellite reception to receive about 30 channels that are broadcasted unencrypted via satellite. So there will be a great challenge for Deutsche Telekom to convince German households to become subscribers.