Telkom to trial video-on-demand

By Rodney Weidemann for Telkom
Johannesburg, 17 May 2005

Telkom hopes to begin trials within three months on a new broadband service called triple play, which includes Internet, music and video-on-demand.

According to Steven White, Telkom executive for product development, the company is constantly looking at new ways to expand its services and triple play is an obvious step when one looks at the way things are developing in Europe and the US.

"We are in the process of signing on around 400 selected customers to participate in the trial phase, which we hope to begin in August," says White.

"We have deals with M-Net and MultiChoice in terms of content provision and aim to offer DVD-quality broadcasts and video and music-on-demand, downloaded from a content server."

He says a big challenge remains as far as the billing system goes, but Telkom will work on this as the trial - which will be free for participants - progresses.

"We had hoped to begin the trials earlier, but obviously we are dealing with a lot of content and a large delivery system, so there have been the occasional teething problems, but the trials will certainly begin soon," he says.

"There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered, such as when and what customers want in terms of content, and how often they want it, as all of these factors impact on the service and its delivery."

White claims that triple play will be an add-on service, so the standard bandwidth cap for downloading will not apply to something like video-on-demand.

He points out that in Europe, the average family downloads one-and-a-half films per month, meaning the business case will not work as a standalone one.

"There are also a number of copyright issues that go along with a service like this that we are in the process of sorting out with the relevant content owners, as well as the matter of content branding," says White.

"We don`t want people to think Telkom is moving into the business of content provision - we most certainly are not."

Or will we miss out?

A visiting telecommunications executive yesterday claimed that SA is in danger of missing out on the triple play service, which he described as "the next big convergence thing".

David Aviv, VP of advanced services of Israeli-based Radware, said the next step in universal connectivity is that of user-centric broadband, a concept that overseas telecommunications companies and service providers are only beginning to get to grips with.

"Every five years, or so, we see a leap in the concept of what people use or demand from the Internet. Initially it was basic dial-up services and then we moved into broadband and now it is user-centric broadband, which means an individual can personalise his or her needs, they want it to be readily accessible all the time and from anywhere, and it has to be interactive."

He said triple play requires high local loop speeds and quality of service - offerings that do not seem readily available in SA.

"To a visitor, it seems that SA is deliberately building a barrier between itself and the world. Unless the tariff structures are sorted out with competition entering the market - there is a serious possibility of the country being left behind."