Cisco Systems is using the IBC show next week as a sort of coming out party for its position in the IPTV market.

Though not typically thought of among the leading vendors for video, Paul Sanchirico, senior director for video/IPTV at Cisco said more than 10 million subscribers get their digital signals over Cisco-powered networks. Case in point is SureWest, which announced today that it would expand its fiber-to-the-home network using a Cisco NGN reference architecture with Catalyst 4500 and 6500 Series switches.

The independent carrier, one of the most aggressive telcos in the triple play market, currently is adding on 500 customers per month to it FTTH network. Like other carriers around the world, SureWest is starting to explore other service options beyond traditional cable programming.

“Video isn’t one homogenous thing,” Sanchirico said. “To service providers there are many different types of video applications.”

Cisco, in fact, divides the telco video market into three different approaches: managed video, which includes traditional video-on-demand with customer buying content; video communications service, which includes video phones and conferencing; and over-the-top delivery, where customers buy content from unaffiliated sources such as CinemaNow.

“In the industry we’ve found very different approaches,” Sanchirico said. “Some people who see the network as a big fat dumb pipe. There are scale problems with that. Service providers are after a platform that support IP rich media.”

Regardless of the approach, carriers must be aware that as they step into video market, their challenges will increase and change significantly, he added.

“They’re stepping through a natural set of challenges,” Sanchirico said. “They started with worrying about access. Then they worried about having the video applications necessary to create a differentiated product. The next thing is scale. The fourth is ‘how do I deal with a connected home environment?’”