Telcos who are also IPTV providers face substantial challenges adapting their networks to accommodate the onslaught of over-the-top (OTT) video, a new report said.
The new report from IMS Research estimates that in 2010 peak bandwidth utilization was 44% of capacity, and that the bandwidth usage per household is forecast to increase by more than 50% between 2010 and 2015.
IMS Research also forecasts that pay OTT subscription services will generate a cumulative $32 billion in revenues globally over the next five years, and will account for a larger part of the market than pay-per services that enable users to rent or purchase videos on an ad-hoc basis. But even so, many telcos are threatened with a bandwidth shortage.
IMS Research further said the IPTV world market indicate that 75% of IPTV households receive their television over an ADSL connection. Future proofing with fiber-to-the-home infrastructure is prohibitively expensive and very time intensive.
In the meantime, telcos are seeking cost effective solutions to maximize their legacy infrastructure. Reducing crosstalk across copper bonded pairs using the ITU-T G.vector standard (G.993.5), introducing software solutions to maximize network logistics, and using caching in the network are all solutions that are occurring right now, as telcos position themselves to meet the rapidly growing consumer OTT demand. Even further, many operators are looking at deploying local content delivery networks (CDN) to keep their traffic local, reducing costs of bandwidth transit.
But IMS Research warns that bandwidth congestion challenges are more pronounced in countries with lower broadband penetration and correspondingly longer loop lines. The research firm expects Eastern European and Latin American DSL providers to struggle acutely with video-generated congestion issues.