In an article by Ken Wieland at DigiWorld 2006, Paul Reynolds, CEO of BT Wholesale, stated "I really don't see a business case for widespread FTTH. It is not immediately apparent where the incremental revenue would come from that investment." Instead, BT will continue down the path of launching its ADSL2+ next year.

Is this the right choice for BT? Will the high investment pay off for others? I remember reading an article earlier this year in Fortune forecasting big results in the years to come due to the 'FiOS' network Verizon is laying. However, in a more recent article, the forecast was quite grim for the payout on IPTV services.

Optibase, Ltd. announced that it is providing its IPTV solution to Hungarian Internet service provider, TVnet. Upgrading its current internet and telephony services, TvNet has added IPTV to its basket of services, to commence in Budapest in December.

Espial IPTV has successfully completed an IPTV pilot deployment at UPC Sweden. UPC and its partners integrated and deployed Espial's Evo IPTV Service Platform, including the newly launched Evo Server, in less than four months from project initiation to commercial launch. UPC Sweden was recently integrated into Com Hem, the leading Swedish provider of Triple Play services with 1.7 million customers covering all of Sweden.

Inuk Networks announced the launch of Freewire TV – a new service that uses multicast to deliver broadcast quality television over closed IP networks. Aiming to provide all consumers in the UK with added choice in who supplies them with multichannel television, this new service will deliver a solution for the "digitally disenfranchised" – the 6 million+ households unable to receive high quality digital television by other means.

After technical issues and delays (See Swisscom's Delay a Bad Sign for IPTV?, Swisscom has met their strategic goal (See Swisscom Fixnet to Launch Bluewin TV in 2006) and has announced the availability of Bluewin TV, their new IPTV service, starting November 1st.

Swisscom's Bluewin TV service offers 100-plus television channels, 70-plus radio channels, 500-plus top films via on demand, live sports coverage and up to 30 Teleclub channels. The monthly fee for the basic offering, Bluewin TV Plus, is CHF 29 ($23 US, 18 Euro).

To receive Bluewin TV, customers need a broadband Internet connection (an ADSL 150 subscription is sufficient). Content is broadcast via the Bluewin set-top box which is connected to an ADSL or VDSL modem. Customers in areas which do not yet provide VDSL access can have only one TV channel transmitted at a time, and pay CHF 26 instead of CHF 29 for the basic package.

BT reached three new video-on-demand agreements with MTV, Paramount Comedy and Nickelodeon in the UK to supply entertainment content for BT's next-generation IPTV service, BT Vision.

Additionally, as previous reported by Ovum (See BT Vision Could Launch by December), BT confirms in their latest announcement that "BT Vision will launch this Autumn."

Analysts at the London-based research firm Ovum said on Tuesday that British Telecom (BT) may be ready to launch their new IPTV service, BT Vision, by the end of the year. The group goes on to say that BT may do a "soft" launch this fall and follow up with a full launch next year.

Here's the rest of the story.

In yet another announcement tied to Deutsche Telekom, TANDBERG Television's IPTV video head-end and MPEG-4 AVC encoders have been selected by Deutsche Telekom for the Croatian T-Com network. TANDBERG is Working closely with Siemens Networks to provide the technology for the MAXtv IPTV service being launched by Croatian T-Com. The service is using TANDBERG EN5930 SD (standard definition) encoders, TT1222 professional receivers and TT7140 IP streamers to provide Croatian viewers with over 80 real-time channels and a large number of video on-demand movies.

Deutsche Telekom AG has signed on with Shenick Network System's diversifEye to test network performance and the quality for its T-Com triple-play IPTV, VoIP and high speed Internet applications for broadband end user services.

According to the Financial Times Deutschland, Deutsche Telekom is nearly ready to launch the T-Home IPTV service on October 17th. The article referenced several people close to the matter.

The T-Home service has become a must-resort option with telephone subscriber loses numbering nearly half a million per quarter. The new service will provide telephone service, around 50 channels in the basic package, a movie download service, and a not-to-shabby VDSL Internet connection at 25 Mbit/s.

Ruckus Wireless has been selected by Belgium's national telecom provider, Belgacom, to supply in-home "smart Wi-Fi" systems to support its popular digital broadband TV service -- Belgacom TV.

The Ruckus smart Wi-Fi system, MediaFlex NG, is the-first-of-its-kind in-home wireless platform that uses patent-pending technology to increase the reliability of Wi-Fi signals, extend their range and automatically steer them around interference in real-time.

Ruckus Wireless, credited with pioneering "smart Wi-Fi" technology and systems, today announced that it has been selected by Telefonica O2 Czech Republic to support its newly launched IPTV service. Telefonica O2 Czech Republic will provide Ruckus MediaFlex wireless routers and adapters to subscribers who want to enjoy IPTV and Internet access without having to wire or rewire their homes.

ECI Telecom today announced that it has signed a contract with Atlas Telecom Romania to expand their broadband network. This three-year contract will provide Atlas Telecom Romania with the ability to cost-effectively offer triple play and IPTV services.

FASTWEB and SKY Italia have today announced a major joint partnership agreement designed to significantly expand their respective customer propositions.

Under the new deal, both companies will be able to offer their existing customer base a range of new services and benefits: FASTWEB will be able to offer its customers the entire SKY portfolio of award winning television channels through broadband, SKY will in turn be able to offer its current and new subscribers both telephony and high speed internet access via FASTWEB.

Telefónica Deutschland GmbH is upgrading its network into one of the largest alternative broadband infrastructures in the German market. To this end, Telefónica has awarded Siemens Communications a contract to expand its inner-core backbone. Siemens has supplied M- and T-series routers from Juniper Networks and Metro Ethernet switches from Extreme Networks and integrated them in the carrier’s backbone network at the locations Frankfurt, Berlin and Düsseldorf. Siemens will also maintain a service organization to support Telefónica's network operation in ensuring the constant availability of the network. With the expanded network, Telefónica is equipping itself in Germany to serve growing numbers of users with a highly resilient infrastructure, offering internet providers high-quality broadband services such as Voice over IP, and in the future also IPTV and video on demand.