As the first of the former Bell companies to launch a video service in this decade, Verizon could have made bold moves with its technology choices or could have taken the more economic route by using more traditional cable elements. Instead, the company's launch of its FiOS TV service last week on its Keller, Texas, fiber-to-the-premises network represents a decidedly middle ground.

Verizon plans to use a network design that looks similar to traditional cable but includes such telco-like touches as duplicate headends and Sonet rings. In addition, the carrier is using a combination of traditional radio frequency (RF) carriage as IP.

At the core of the network, the company has set up two super headends (SHEs), one in Temple Terrace, Fla., and another in Bloomington, Ill. The SHEs will both take in the same national content from an array of traditional cable networks. Verizon, in fact, announced an agreement with Disney just one day before the FiOS TV launch that includes 12 Disney-owned services.

In the event of failure, one SHE will be able to provide content to all sites, said Paul Tassinari, executive director of video network services for Verizon.

From the SHEs, video is sent over Verizon's Sonet to hub offices where local off-air networks as well as required public, educational and government channels are injected. In the case of the Keller launch, content will come from a hub office in Carrollton, Texas. Video-on-demand (VOD) will follow a similar path with some being stored at the hub office on local servers. However, from the hub office, linear programming from the cable networks will be sent to local central offices and over the FTTP network using RF technology while all VOD content and the interactive program guide will come into the home over IP. Unlike SBC Communications and BellSouth, which have committed to launching all-IP video networks, Verizon believes mixing formats is more appropriate given the state of the technology.

“It's a network that is future-proof,” Tassinari said. “FTTP also gives us the ability to use IP.”

Bob Ingalls, president of Verizon's retail markets group, said the company will eventually migrate all its video to IP.

“We're ready to deliver IPTV when and if the software capability is there,” he said at the press conferencing announcing the launch. “We're in the market ready to offer service because we made the decision to offer [RF] first.”

SBC has consistently promised to launch its IP video by the end of the year, though numerous vendor sources have claimed the company is behind schedule because of problems with the MicrosoftTV platform. Teresa Mastrangelo, principal analyst at broadbandtrends.com, said Verizon's launch should help put a positive spin on the overall telco video market.

“They're doing it a little bit quicker than originally anticipated,” she said. “I think there's been a lot of negative press around SBC, and people are just assuming that it's going affect everybody.”

Another reason the company is able to launch now is its use of MPEG2 compression, the same technology employed by most traditional cable operators. The newer MPEG4 compression can squeeze video into smaller bandwidth spaces but is just now coming to market and remains comparatively expensive. In addition, the codecs for high-definition MPEG4 won't be in the hands of carriers until at least the end of the year, and programmers have yet to adopt the technology.

“I'm not surprised that Verizon's not doing MPEG4, even on the VOD, because none of the content is available in MPEG4 so that would just add another layer of expense,” Mastrangelo said.

Inside the home, Verizon will be using three different Motorola set-top boxes — one standard definition, one that includes a high-definition decoder and one with an integrated digital video recorder. The company will use existing in-home coax to transmit between the optical network units on the side of the home and TVs for both linear and VOD programming. Video entering as an IP stream will be sent to Motorola's set-tops using Multimedia Over Coax (MOCA) technology.

Those set-tops, based on the vendor's DCT cable line, also are something of a hybrid because they can receive QAM video but also IP because of the integrated MOCA technology.

“In this case, MOCA was a good fit in terms of the bandwidth needed and the ability to use the existing coax wires in the home,” said Carl Vassia, Motorola's product marketing lead for the Verizon account.

Using the mixture of technology, Verizon expects to have the FiOS TV offering up and running in Wylie, Sachse and Westlake, Texas, all of which have granted the company video franchises, later this year. The company then will expand to cities in Florida, Virginia and California, where it already has obtained video franchises. Other potential sites include anywhere the FTTP network has been deployed (see figure).

Not coincidentally, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation last month that frees telcos offering video service from the requirement that they receive local franchises.

VERIZON FTTP DEPLOYMENT STATUS