DSL and IP will be the preferred transport technologies for video in tomorrow’s networks, according to a survey conducted by Laurel Networks at CeBIT. The survey polled 100 industry professionals during the CeBIT conference in Hanover, Germany.

Not surprising, those who took the survey also identified government regulation as the largest hurdle to deployment. Deployment expense, operational costs and technology complexity all came in second to regulation as impediments to the growth of triple play networks.



"It's interesting that regulation - not technology - is seen as the largest barrier today to delivering video over the last mile," said Steve Vogelsang, vice president of marketing at Laurel Networks. "As regulatory issues are sorted out, the next challenge service providers will face is building scalable, highly-reliable infrastructure networks that can deliver high-speed video content to users. From our standpoint, we believe that high availability and platform density will be key ingredients to delivering on the promise of triple play."

Commenting from CeBIT, Laurie Gonzalez, marketing director for the DSL Forum, the global industry organization that developed the DSLHome initiative, said: "There are more than a billion phone lines worldwide, all of which can deliver DSL. In developing markets, such as Eastern Europe, this gives DSL a tremendous head-start against other technologies, since it utilizes an existing network of analog telephone lines. As DSL continues to mature, network-edge technology will insure that providers have intelligent networks that deliver quality interactive broadband services, as well as address growing consumer demand for higher speeds and greater reliability. This will be a key part of enabling unfettered growth for DSL."