The announcement this week of the first set of IPTV standards from the International Telecommunications Union is certainly welcome, but many within the IPTV segment see this is the first of what will be many steps in the process of standardizing IPTV.

While the service is rolling out globally, there are no standards today, other than those already set in the Internet world. Today there are many organizations involved in IPTV standards -- the ITU, the Digital Video Broadcasting, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, the Home Gateway Initiative, the DSL Forum and ATIS, to name the ones that Microsoft cites in response to a query on standards. Other groups including those devoted to content creators and providers, as well as consumer electronics gear, are also likely to get involved.

It's not surprising so many different interest groups have their fingers in the IPTV standards pie. The technology is drawing from many different segments -- video, consumer electronics, telecom, Internet -- and each has its own standards group. In addition, individual countries or regions are eager to standardize IPTV.

The goal for all is the same. Standardized IPTV offerings will enable service providers to deploy and scale more quickly, with greater assurance that there will be no technology deadlines. Standardization helps drive down costs and leverage economies of scale.

The danger when there are too many standards groups is that deployment of a new technology will be slow, while standards conflicts are resolved. The thing about IPTV, however, is that it represents the best competitive option for telecom service providers who are seeing their core landline revenues shrink. So standards are much less likely to slow them down.

Pressing ahead with vendor-specific solutions has its own dangers, and more than likely those concerns are being factored into the vendor choices being made today. Once standards are developed, as a result, there are likely to be variants to take into account what is actually deployed today. This has certainly happened in the past, and is likely to be the reality of a competitive market going forward.

E-mail me at cwilson3@telephonyonline.com.