Could IPTV be choking broadband?

There are growing concerns within the industry that the increase in IPTV could be responsible for the clogging up of the internet which slows the speeds down to the good old days of dial up. Concerns have come about since the BBC’s launch of the iPlayer over Christmas, this has seen a massive three and half million downloads in the first two weeks.

But what concerns the ISP’s is the fact that the BBC and other providers, such as the new Kangaroo project which is an amalgamation of the main channels which will offer top shows from al of the main channels, these channels provide the viewing material while the viewer pays a monthly fee and yet all of these downloads are stretching the bandwidth and leaving the ISP’s to pick up the bill.

So the question is who should pay for upgrading the network? Some ISP’s believe that it should be the likes of the BBC and the other companies who are providing these services, but no doubt they would see it differently. Tiscali are the more vocal of the ISP’s and have even introduced what they call traffic shaping; this restricts large amounts of data at peak times.

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