MORGAN HILL, CA—Video is seen as a big boon for both cable operators and carriers, states a report from Anritsu. From a wire-line perspective, it is the evolution of video, stretching from conventional video services to video-on-demand (VoD) and IPTV. The wireless sector has many technical issues to resolve, but it's a foregone conclusion that mobile video has great potential.
Despite the fact that a number of quality- and content-related issues must be resolved, most industry watchers see video as a growth market for wireless carriers. Infonetics Research recently stated that revenue generated from mobile video services worldwide will "skyrocket." A similar rosy forecast was predicted by the Yankee Group, which expects the combined mobile video/TV market will grow to $11 billion by 2010.
Most experts also believe that video services will help create a spike in wire-line business. The growth can be traced to key factors, including the increased acceptance of watching videos on PCs and VoD services. Approximately 1.5 billion video streams were watched by consumers in 2005, a number that will more than double this year and is predicted to grow to 6.7 billion by 2011, according to the Yankee Group. In 2005, only 4 percent of the world's homes made their broadband connection over fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) received video services. By the end of 2011 that figure will be 55 percent, according to a study from ABI Research.
Anritsu has developed test solutions that address both wireless and wire-line video applications. Ensuring video quality is a large part of the expected growth and a big concern to both content providers and carriers/cable companies.
For further information, go to www.anritsu.com