broadband strategies handbook.pdf - Khazar University

Others have developed more extensive video service offerings, including BT(formerly British Telecom) in the United Kingdom, which offers its Visionservice, which seamlessly integrates free-to-air digital television programswith a digital recorder and VoD feature. 28 Some operators provide additionalfeatures such as radio programming and the ability to watch programmingon computers, tablets, and mobile phones in addition to thetraditional television set.The ability to bundle television with broadband Internet service is oftensubject to technical and regulatory considerations. In the case of IPTV,users need to have a minimum bandwidth to use the service. Some countriesrequire companies that provide television service to obtain permission or aspecific type of license. Sometimes permission is required from local authorities.Conditions vary, but in general, television service is subject to a higherlevel of regulatory oversight than broadband service. Regulatory limitationshave sometimes meant that operators can only provide delayed servicerather than live programming, making their offer less attractive.BundlingIP-based technology and digitalization of media allow a single network toprovide a variety of voice, data, and video services. The ability to offer multipleservices has led operators to bundle services together. This oftenincludes a price reduction in the total cost of the service (that is, the bundledprices is less than the cost of buying the same services individually) and thebenefit of receiving just one bill. “Double play” refers to a combination ofbroadband Internet and some other service, “triple play” refers to the abilityto provide three services, whereas “quadruple play” also includes mobileservice (see table 6.2 for bundling trends in Switzerland).Bundling offers can be attractive to consumers because of their lowercosts and a single invoice. However, some consumers may only want oneservice from a provider and therefore need to have an “a la carte” optionand not be obligated to purchase additional services. In any case, a serviceprovider that is only allowed to provide Internet access is at a disadvantageversus converged operators since consumers are increasingly interestedin receiving multiple types of communication services offeredthrough bundles.GovernmentGovernment servi ces and applications fall into the following broadcategories: (a) making government information available, (b) conductingtransactions with the government, and (c) participating in the political process.Governments can enhance broadband demand by acting as model272 Broadband Strategies Handbook