FTTH could rise as consumer patterns change

People are accessing their entertainment differently all the time. If you think back to stories you may have heard about life less than a century ago, you'll hear about how families used to sit around the radio at night listening to broadcasts. By the middle of the 20th century, television took over and started to dominate. In the past few decades, television models have evolved through complex cable and satellite plans that give consumers a wide variety of programming. However, traditional television services my be losing popularity faster than many think. A recent study from the FTTH Council Americas found that consumers are embracing IPTV faster than initially anticipated, creating major network challenges.

The rise of IPTV
IPTV services have been gaining popularity as an alternative to traditional television plans. The IPTV model is based around relatively low-cost video delivery to consumers over the web, allowing people to buy access to the services they want, whether it be something like Netflix or an online subscription to a channel they happen to like, and not worry about all of the downsides that come with a typical cable or satellite plan. While most experts have recognized the popularity of IPTV solutions, the FTTH Council study found that the movement is expanding much more quickly than anybody expected because of a young, tech-savvy generation getting behind the content-delivery format.

Heather Burnett Gold, president of the FTTH Council, explained that the survey's results point to a major transition in home-based services.

"It is clear that a fast-growing number of people are looking to the internet to get the video programming they want - when and where they want it," said Burnett Gold. "But this survey shows that the trend is very much a home-based phenomenon, where televisions, tablets, smartphones and other devices are drawing broadband signal from a household Wi-Fi router that is served by a wireline connection."

Equipping telecom networks to support IPTV
FTTH infrastructure is integral to supporting the IPTV revolution that is underway. Telecoms and other internet service providers that want to streamline FTTH deployment to prepare for widespread IPTV use may want to consider investments in fiber to Ethernet media converters that overcome the compatibility gaps in FTTH infrastructure and enable cost-efficient network deployment. Video is becoming a dominant part of consumer internet practices and FTTH is vital in helping telecoms respond.

Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.