NDTC ramps up IPTV service
Jan 30, 2007 8:00 AM
IPTVU: What in particular attracted you to the Optibase Media Gateway for your IPTV offering?
RE: A lot of things figured into our decision with Optibase. Our engineering consultants liked it and recommended it. The cost was very competitive. We were familiar with the product through one of our owner companies. Optibase had in their product and roadmap some features that we liked a lot. Most importantly, they took the time to show us they could back up what they claimed, and that built a high level of trust.
IPTVU: Some in the broadcast industry have expressed concern over a different expectation for quality of service between those in the telecom industry and those in the video business. Is that an issue for NDTC?
RE: Quality of service is always an issue. What quality of service is being questioned? I believe the quality of service the independent telcos have brought to their customer over the years has always been superior. It has been a point of pride wherever I have been and worked in the industry.
As for the quality of the product we deliver, that too has always been of a high standard. I don't see that our culture or integrity dropped as we went from the voice world into the data world. I don't see that it will change as we go into video either. Our customers trust us today, and I expect they will tomorrow.
If the question is of the telcos being able to preserve the quality of, and provide the security for, the content we get from the programmers, I think it's only natural that those concerns are there. I understand the value of the content and have every intention of keeping it secure. I want the programmers to understand I want them to trust me with their work. I think the reservations some of the programmers and creators of content have will lessen with time and prove that IPTV security is dependable and safe.
If the question concerns the network we have, what I am hearing from the vendors out there is that the reliability is there. We are taking a lot of steps to make sure that we have the redundancy that we need and that switchover, if there is a failure with one piece of equipment, will not be noticeable to the customers. That’s what we are really trying to do. Optibase, of course, says that the failover is short, and if perceptible at all won’t bother the customer. That is what we have seen.
We’ve lived with the five 9s (99.999 percent quality of service) in the telecom industry for many, many years. Are there guarantees? Absolute guarantees are very hard to accept or deliver, but you’ve got to go with what they say.
IPTVU: Is entry in to the IPTV business a defensive play, given the growth of voice over IP?
RE: If it was purely defensive, I don't believe we'd be as far as we are today. We have always tried to get the most use of our network and infrastructure. It seems to be a logical move to use the network we have in place to deliver video. Is it going to be a good defense against our competition and a decline in customers? Of course it is. Is it something we would have done even if we weren't facing competition? I believe it is.
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