Three Nets in one

A triple play service can be defined as a marketing term for putting two broadband services together with a narrowband service. The two broadband services are Internet access and television while the narrowband service is the telephone. These three services are then brought the consumer over one single broadband connection.

The technology of a triple play essentially comes from the nee for cable companies to offer services over one physical medium. This allows them to read a large number of customers due to the fact that their networks already had the bandwidth technology to complete these tasks. Cable companies began to understand the their main competitors were satellite providers. Satellite companies cannot compete in the voice and interactive broadband market due to federal regulation laws. So in order to compete in these markets satellite companies are partnering with these companies to sell TV, telephone, and Internet access that are bundled into one. Recently cable television operators and telecommunication operators have begun to be able to effectively compete with one another. The way that they are able to compete is by relying on an integrated solution that will increase opportunity costs for customers that wish to pick between service providers.

Triple play services are currently being subjected to intensive regulation debates. Cable and other providers wish to keep new competitors on the outside of the market. The leaders in these industry wish to continue to operate as regulated monopolies as the have done for many years. Cable providers want to compete with telecommunications for local voice service, but want to discourage telecommunications firms from competing with them for television service. Incumbent telecommunication firms want to deliver television service but block competition for voice service from cable operators.

Telephone local exchange carriers deliver the triple play by using an optical fiber line and a digital subscriber line to deliver services to their customers. Remote locations can be reached by utilizing last mile access technology to the subscriber's home. Cable television providers use technology that is called hybrid fiber coaxial to reach their customers. Subscriber homes can be in a residential environment, multi-dwelling units, or even in business offices. DSL use instead of a twisted pair technology allows television to be delivered very effectively to subscribers home. This technology allows users to control their viewing experience and take advantage of such services as movies on demand. A handful of service providers are beginning to utilize Ethernet for use on home networks. These Ethernets help to overcome the disadvantages of adapting a broadband transmission to another type of network. This helps to reduce the high initial green field investment costs to deliver all services in one.

The future of this technology is most definitely a quadruple that incorporates wireless communications are added to the triple play. Technologies such as WiMax or 802.16 allow new market entrants to achieve a triple play of their own. These technologies allow new entrants a competitive edge over those already firmly established within the industry. Some companies are even claiming that this new wireless technology is more reliable than the traditional cable formats. Wireless formats generally can continue to operate