ABI: Net Neutrality Debate Heats Up for Cable Operators
December 19, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS
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According to ABI Research, the festering debate over net neutrality will become heated as cable operators realize that many of the new, customer-demanded, advanced video and voice services from online providers are beyond the control of cable operators and their closed networks.
There lies the potential that the spectrum requirements for data over cable service interface specifications data will explode, removing yet another chunk from the amount available.
"In the near future, Americans will be poised to click their remote controls more, while cable operators enjoy this prospect less," said ABI Research vice president and research director Stan Schatt.
"The introduction of network-based control - such as nPVR (network personal video recorders), start-over and time-shifting - as well as the increasing desire for VOD (video on demand) services, suggests that the amount of spectrum set aside for these on-demand services will increase significantly," Schatt said.
"As customers interact using their remote controls to send signals via their set-top boxes [STBs], bandwidth requirements will continue to increase for cable operators."
The burden of supplying a broadband pipe adequate to support these services falls on the cable TV (CATV) operator, analysts said.
Although this is fueling the net neutrality debate, the current situation is one where broadband bandwidth on CATV networks will have to expand in the near future to accommodate customer demand. Any expansion of the bandwidth dedicated to broadband will be that much less bandwidth used for revenue-generating video services.
"One new service that could impact bandwidth combines voice and video for two-way video calling," Schatt said. "Operators are concerned that services such as this, along with online gaming, will place enormous strains upon upstream bandwidth capacity. The argument from cable and telecom operators against net neutrality focuses on network strain caused by bandwidth-demand increases, which operators cannot control."
Schatt said if the customer uses data services for basic web surfing and e-mail, demand for bandwidth is not a hindrance to the broader network spectrum capacity. "But when customers use voice and advanced video services from online providers, the amount of data downloaded will cripple the bandwidth capacity of a network."
Source: ABI Research.