ANGA Cable – Cologne. Operators should be looking to expand their triple play offerings to include new services. During the Broadband Summit session at ANGA Cable Thomas Hintze, CEO, UPC Austria, described how the company was turning to mobile telephony services after eight years of triple play offerings.
As an equipment supplier, Bob McIntyre, CTO, Cisco Service Provider Technology Group, Scientific Atlanta was able to give a broad overview of the market, believing that it was the customer who would ultimately be the winner. “Triple play is not enough, quad play where the cellular component is added, and other types of integrated services are the drivers.”
Parm Sandhu, CEO, Unitymedia Group highlighted how Sky had added a DSL broadband service to its DTH package and in the process had harnessed the value of its brand. “You have to develop the brand to the point that allows you to use it whatever the product,” he said.
Hinze argued that such a strategy did not always work as after years of decrying the ADSL offering, UPC Austria had to introduce a second brand for its own ADSL-based broadband service. Hinze said Sky’s entry into broadband was nothing more than a defensive measure. “What they are doing is taking a little bit of their BSkyB margin and putting it into DSL.”
Duco Sickinghe, CEO, Telenet, Belgium said cable could afford to work with the triple play concept as it used just a single truck roll. “If you start to look not at a customer who takes a number of services, but has a specific set of needs, it can work.”