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IPTV is Coming, Are You Ready?
By Larry Hendrick | November 5, 2005
Fighting government regulation is always the hardest enemy to battle and IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is no exception. It is already here in a very limited basis, but Verizon has announced a full fledged push in Texas because of pro-legislation. The future will be very interesting on this front, so keep watching and I will watch to see what means you are watching by…
If you believe in broadband, free IPTV | Perspectives | CNET News.com
Yet IPTV faces a major challenge. It is not technological, with the best and brightest engineers solving those issues. And it is not market-created, with investors ready to deploy the new networks. Rather, the challenge to more rapid IPTV deployment is governmental.
Because some state, local and federal policy makers misperceive new broadband video offerings as identical to the cable television services deployed by monopolies more than a decade ago, they seek to regulate them identically. Specifically, they demand that IPTV providers negotiate franchise agreements separately and individually with more than 33,000 municipal governments for the right to send content over the Internet.
Not surprisingly, industry analysts and objective observers identify this regulatory burden as the single biggest barrier to more rapid IPTV deployment and thus accelerated broadband adoptions and investments. But there is hope.
To their credit, far-sighted members of the House and Senate, Republican and Democrat alike, have identified the need for minimal regulation and simplified franchising processes. The Texas legislature similarly recognized that those who truly believe in broadband need to free IPTV and overwhelmingly passed forward-looking legislation that should serve as a model for the rest of the nation.
Topics: Technology |