Motorola's acquisition of Kreatel Communications topped headlines this week. With this purchase and Cisco's purchase of Scientific-Atlanta, everyone is questioning how the set-top box market will shape up and are these just the beginning of additional mergers and acquisitions.

Motorola's acquisition strengthens their presence in Europe, adds to their IPTV portfolio, and gives them Kreatel's customers such as major service providers Telefónica (Spain), TeliaSonera (Sweden), and KPN (The Netherlands).

On a different note, a discussion took place this week between telephone companies and other providers about charging fees to companies with products causing high bandwidth usage. Some examples of this could be Skype, Google Video, Vonage, or the P2P networks. Google's Barry Schnitt responded saying, "Google is not discussing sharing of the costs of broadband networks with any carrier. We believe consumers are already paying to support broadband access to the Internet through subscription fees and, as a result, consumers should have the freedom to use this connection without limitations."

The discussion has major relevance to IPTV and VoIP companies because of their bandwidth usage. Companies that currently offer IPTV over existing wires such has KyLinTV or Akimbo could be affected.

SBC's CEO Edward Whitacre caused a shake-up late last year with his answer when asked by BusinessWeek how concerned he was with Internet upstarts like Vonage, Google, and others.

His response was, "How do you think they're going to get to customers? Through a broadband pipe. Cable companies have them. We have them. Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?

The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!"

We'd like to hear your comments.

Here are the other headlines...

AOL TV, Gaming Coming to UK?
BetaNews - January 20, 2006
"AOL UK is looking to expand its reach into the homes of consumers by making an investment that could lead to the delivery of broadband based services such as IPTV and video on-demand. The company will spend 50 million GBP to gain access to 20 percent of UK homes in the first half of 2006."

BellSouth may leapfrog to front of IPTV world
Telephony Online - January 20, 2006
"While not creating the same noise as its peers AT&T and Verizon in the IPTV market, BellSouth is working on a plan that could move it to the head of pack in the U.S. The company, which recently announced a 250-home IPTV trial in Atlanta using Microsoft TV’s middleware package, also is exploring a process to convert its 50,000 existing video customers over to an IP environment, said Don Granger, president of BellSouth Entertainment."

Bharti plans IPTV launch, UTStarcom the technology partner
Indiantelevision.com - January 20, 2006
"Sunil Mittal has serious ambitions of entering the triple play arena. Having built a strong mobile phone business, he is quietly working on a project that would enable Bharti to offer video content through its telephone lines."

BellSouth Predicts 2007 IPTV Launch
Telecomweb - January 19, 2006
"Incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) BellSouth likely will introduce full IPTV services a year from now."

First IPTV services targets Sri Lankan community
iTWire - January 18, 2006
"Multicultural media company, Global Net Media, has launched what it believes to be to be Australia's first commercial IPTV, over the Telstra ADSL network in conjunction with wholesale ISP, ispOne."

Eurobites: Light Me!
Light Reading - January 18, 2006
"Europe, it seems, just digs fiber! Fiber-to-the-whatever (FTTW) news is emerging nearly daily from a different corner of the Old Continent."

Amino Eyed As Peer Acquired -KBC Peel Hunt
newratings.com - January 18, 2006
"KBC Peel Hunt focuses on Amino Technologies (AMO.LN) following the acquisition of Kreatel, a Swedish IPTV set-top box provider, by Motorola (MOT). Says the potency of this combination and competitive threat to Amino will become clear in due course, says but 'it underlines again the consolidation activity within the sector.'"

Second City TV for AT&T
Red Herring - January 16, 2006
"The largest telecommunications carrier in the United States admitted a little more than a week ago that it had begun testing its TV service in its corporate home of San Antonio (see AT&T Makes TV Debut). Now the carrier, formerly known as SBC Communications before SBC acquired AT&T last year, will kick off its TV service in the town of San Ramon, California."

France Telecom to launch field test of FTTH internet access in Paris this year
Forbes - January 17, 2006
"France Telecom SA said it will launch a field test of fiber to the home (FTTH) very high speed internet access technology to clients in Paris and the neighbouring suburb of Hauts-de-Seine before this summer, before expanding the pilot programme throughout France by the end of this year."

IMS and IPTV, Perfect Together
TMCnet - January 17, 2006
"Clearly, the challenge for service providers is to increase the value of their services to generate increased ARPU, and to decrease the constant customer churn between one provider and another that reduces service profitability. To accomplish this, service providers need to consider new “blended” service packages that will differentiate their triple play offerings from other providers."

MTNL, BSNL to kick-off IPTV from Mumbai, Chennai
Indiantelevision.com - January 17, 2006
"The first roll out of cable TV through telephone lines will be in Mumbai and Chennai soon. That is, if union information technology and communications minister Dayanidhi Maran's words turn true."

Tiny ILECs See the Big Picture
Light Reading - January 16, 2006
"Today, in fact, Pannaway Technologies Inc. announced its gear had been picked as the broadband service and IPTV delivery gear of choice for Arthur Mutual Telephone Company, a rural ILEC in northwest Ohio that has about 1,350 customers spread over 47 square miles."

China Looks to Internet-Based TV
Top Tech News - January 16, 2006
"In spite of the huge potential, the growth of China's IPTV market is still being restrained by regulatory barriers that have been thwarting the creation of new business models and its rapid take-off. According to China Business News, IPTV may challenge the current profitability and position of local radio, film and television sectors in China."