Global IP Summit addresses over-the-top debate. By Steve Hawley

Friendly Slingbox

Blake Krikorian, CEO and co-founder of Sling Media, said that Telcos (and other broadband operators, including cable), should not feel threatened by his company’s SlingBox. The SlingBox takes the output of the subscriber’s set-top box and routes it back out over the Internet or to other IP-networked devices in the home. In fact, the operator should consider it an ally in keeping the subscriber loyal. “After all,” he said, “users can’t receive any programming that they haven’t signed up for to begin with. The SlingBox allows users to watch their home TV on a PC or mobile phone.” Dr Yuichiro Takagawa of Japan’s J:Com showed programming from his home TV in Tokyo via his SlingBox-like Sony LocationFree TV, using a Sony PSP. He can also receive programming from the cable TV provider serving his Boston location.

MovieBeam datacasting

As a content provider, Mark Langford, VP of Product Development at MovieBeam added that although his own service bypasses wireline and mobile networks altogether, by using datacasting over the air, content owners, producers and Web-based content aggregators are happy to reduce cost of delivery by not having to pay the consumer’s access provider. Michael Fries, president and CEO of cable TV operator Liberty Global, noted that operators can take four different approaches: ignore over-the-top, impair it (and risk negative consumer reaction), imitate it, or embrace and improve upon it. The discussion isn’t limited to video. With voice (over IP) services, not only is the legacy wireline Telco left outside of the revenue stream, even the VoIP providers themselves are on the defensive. When Kerry Ritz, managing director of Vonage UK, was questioned about the threat from Skype, he was quick to note that Skype isn’t really “free” either: if a Skype user wants to call out to a traditional switched telephone user, there is a fee for the service that makes that possible. Skype-to-Skype calls remain free.