Incumbent operators that intend to launch IPTV and triple-play services may find ADSL2+ lacking, according to a new report, Fibre in the Last Mile: the business case for FTTP and VDSL, published by Analysys, the global advisers on telecommunications, IT and media.

"Real-life speeds of all DSL technologies can be as much as 40% lower at source than their theoretical maximum, and, despite continuing improvements in digital processing, ADSL2+ does not leave a lot of reliable bandwidth to play with over and above one HDTV stream," says Martin Scott, co-author of the report. "Standard digital TV may provide a stop-gap for the near future, but HDTV will be the future standard, and ADSL2+ won't cope. If ADSL2+ isn't enough then operators must look to VDSL2 and fibre," adds Scott.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Broadband Powerline Networking Gets a Jolt from IPTV to their offering.

Powerline networking offers a solution with some advantages over coax and twisted-pair cabling for in-home deployment, especially in regions with little existing coax or phone line jacks, such as in EMEA, China, and many Asia-Pacific countries. At this time, we do not believe that there will be one clear technology winner in the networking interface race between coax, phone line, and powerline; however, our current analysis points toward powerline as winning on a worldwide scale.

Broadband powerline networking, a wired technology that does not require new cabling to be installed, is poised to emerge as a winner in the residential networking interface race on a worldwide basis, reports In-Stat. Powerline networking has advantages over coax and twisted-pair cabling for in-home deployment. This is especially true in regions with few existing coax or phone jacks, such as in EMEA, Asia, and Pacific Rim countries, the high-tech market research firm says.

Based on over 470 IPTV Service Providers, MRG's new IPTV Market Leader Report September 2006 ranks about 60 different IPTV vendors in four different regional markets and globally, grouped into six different IPTV product categories.

"Mergers and acquisitions continue to have a major impact on the market," states Bob Larribeau, IPTV Program Director for MRG. "Tandberg's acquisition of SkyStream and Motorola's acquisition of Kreatel put both companies into leading positions; and the Alcatel/Lucent merger will have a similar effect."

The worldwide subscriber base for Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) services is set to expand rapidly by 2010, inciting a war between video providers, both old and new. It has been estimated that global IPTV subscribers’ figure will cross 63 million in 2010 from 5 million in 2005, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 65.99%.

Demand for digital television in Europe will reach a new record in 2006, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics' Broadband Media and Communications service. Nearly 19 million homes will buy digital television for the first time this year, an increase of 20 percent, according to the report, "Digital TV Subscriber Market Forecast Europe." The most popular option for new subscribers is still digital terrestrial TV (DTTV), with more than 10 million new homes added this year. But the newest entrant, IPTV, is also beginning to make inroads and take share from established satellite and cable providers. This report predicts that 16 million homes will subscribe to IPTV by 2010.

The number of households around the world subscribing to Internet Protocol television (IPTV) services offered by telecom carriers will reach 48.8 million in 2010 according to Gartner, Inc. Buoyed by new service launches, IPTV subscribers will more than double in 2007 from an expected 6.4 million in 2006 to 13.3 million.

Telephia, the largest provider of consumer research to the communications and new media markets, reports more than 31 million online homes or two out of five online U.S. households subscribe to bundled services from one provider. Bundled services can include any combination of Internet, TV, phone, and mobile phone subscriptions in a single package.

The broadband boom continues, says Infonetics Research in three new reports tracking the broadband CPE, DSL aggregation hardware, and CMTS markets.

Although flat panel displays are quickly gaining share of the TV set market, IMS Research predicts that CRT sets will continue to make up the majority of TV unit shipments during the next two years. On the other hand, IMS Research estimates that 2006 will be the first year during which worldwide sales revenues from flat panel displays will exceed those from sales of CRT sets.

While data and VoIP continue to drive the DSL IC chipset market, and will account for the bulk of port shipments through 2010, the delivery of IPTV capability is the wave of the future, reports In-Stat. Carriers worldwide are using ADSL2+ and VDSL2 as they upgrade their networks to deliver television and video service, the high-tech market research firm says.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of "2006 Global NGN, IP and VoIP - Global Overview, Analyses and Stats" to their offering.

Next Generation Networks (NGN), VoIP, cheaper calls, new IT applications, voice, data and video convergence, VPN, IP networks.

Research and Markets has announced the addition of "2006 Global Broadband Powerlines - Moving into Home Management" to their offering.

In a new MRG study that tracks the IPTV Set-top Box (STB) market growth and market share in 4 regions and globally, Motorola shows gathering strength through acquisitions while Chinese company Yuxing emerges as strong contender in this young market, scheduled to reach $10.9 billion in 2009.

IMS (IP MULTIMEDIA SUBSYSTEMS architecture) AND SDP (SERVICE DELIVERY PLATFORM) hold significant promise for IPTV operators to accelerate advanced service development, deployment and provisioning that will enhance the profit potential of their triple-play and quad-play services, according to a new IPTV report from MRG, IMS and SDPs in IPTV Networks. While the trap of commoditized services looms large for emerging IPTV operators, using standardized interfaces and architectures provided by IMS and SDP can accelerate the development and deployment stages with minimum impact on operations and network resources; and can decrease duplicative functions (billing, digital rights management, and asset management) while exploiting the inherent advantages of a standardized IP infrastructure in its core.