Incumbent phone companies are pushing IP-based video to the top of their next-generation service agendas, a strategic decision that is likely to have major long-term effects on the telecom equipment industry, according to a major new study released by Heavy Reading, Light Reading Inc.'s market research division.

IPTV and the Future of Telecom Video Network Architectures analyzes the effects that IPTV will have on carrier networks and technology suppliers and also evaluates the market opportunities that IPTV will create throughout the entire telecom supply chain. The report is based on in-depth interviews with network operators that are now considering or already deploying IPTV-capable networks, including BellSouth (NYSE: BLS - News) and SBC Communications (NYSE: SBC - News), as well as conversations with more than two dozen key players in the supplier community, including Alcatel (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA), Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO - News), Juniper Networks, and Microsoft.

"Competition, specifically in North America, is the primary driver for the buildout of IPTV networks and the delivery of IP video services," notes Rick Thompson, Senior Analyst at Heavy Reading and author of the report. Some small North American carriers are already delivering IPTV in some markets, but the Bell companies' plans for IPTV are creating the greatest opportunities for vendors, he says. "These plans are being formulated primarily because of competitive pressure from the cable industry, which is successfully eating away at the Bells' voice subscriber base with multiservice offerings of their own," Thompson adds.

Other key findings from IPTV and the Future of Telecom Video Network Architectures include the following:
The success of the telcos is not a given in the battle to deliver IPTV. IPTV clearly holds potential for carriers and vendors alike, although numerous challenges will arise as deployments scale over time. Beyond the problems of vendor integration, next-generation feature availability, and unprecedented scale, telecom operators are dealing in an area with which they've had little experience. It's far too early to assume that telcos can overcome all of these challenges in the pursuit of dominating video-service delivery via IPTV.

A highly competitive ecosystem of service-specific hardware and software vendors is developing as a result of the demand for IPTV. Unlike the cable/MSO world, which is dominated by a relatively small number of suppliers for video- specific service-layer infrastructure, the IPTV opportunity has led to the involvement of a multitude of incumbent vendors and startups targeting specific areas in the IPTV food chain. This creates vendor-integration challenges, but it also provides more vendor choices for all elements of the service-delivery infrastructure. It's also a leading indicator that opportunities for vendor consolidation will be ripe as the market grows.

Cable operators are not standing still in terms of enhanced entertainment service offerings and network-architecture evolution plans. Although all eyes are on the RBOCs, cable/MSOs are also quietly planning the transition of their underlying network architectures to IP. The next five years are likely to see major advancements in the MSO world under the guise of the Next Generation Network Architecture (NGNA) defined by Comcast, Cox Communications, and Time Warner Cable.

IPTV and the Future of Telecom Video Network Architectures, an 84-page report, costs $3,495. The price includes an enterprise license covering all of the employees at the purchaser's company.