* Also: IPTV will trip up Bells, analysts say; skeptics view IMS as way for carriers to control users
Verizon is planning several network upgrades that will support new services such as optical VPNs and high-speed home networking, as well as reduce data replication among multiple services. On its national optical network, Verizon is installing reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers and plans to migrate to wavelength switching to support automated operations and provisioning, says Mark Wegleitner, Verizon senior vice president and CTO. Verizon is looking at Generalized MPLS-based control in the optical layer to facilitate bandwidth-on-demand and optical VPNs, Wegleitner says.
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The Bells will find the sledding so tough in IPTV that they may bow out, according to three analysts speaking at last week’s Next Generation Networks 2005 conference. After sinking billions of dollars into fiber facilities to offer video to homes and businesses to better compete with cable companies offering voice over IP, RBOCs such as BellSouth, Verizon and SBC will find that their efforts are too little, too late and too expensive, analysts say. They’ll end up gradually backpedaling away from these ambitious and highly visible efforts, and perhaps revive partnerships with satellite TV companies after realizing they can’t catch up to cable companies and other video entertainment providers, they say.
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The IP Multimedia Subsystem is pitched by proponents as a way for carriers to use IP to better integrate voice, data and video applications across wireline and wireless networks. But skeptics view it as a plan to allow carriers to gain more control over customers and their ability to access applications and services.
