A recent report from MRG examined how IPTV (News - Alert) operators are using this new technology to benefit customers. More specifically, the report focused on quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE).

 

IPTV service providers should focus on video quality, advised Steve Hawley, MRG Analyst and author of the report, which addresses the main pressure-points and data hand-offs that make up the majority of QoS and QoE problems.

 

In their goal of retaining customer loyalty and landing new customers, IPTV service providers are looking for way to refine QoS and QoE. Because of this, testing and monitoring has become a major focus of attention.

 

The report itself is based on strategies and profiles from more than 30 IPTV vendors and service providers — including France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Consolidated-Communications, Agilent, Ineoquest, Ixia (News - Alert), Shenick, Spirent, Symmetricom, and Tektronix.

 

"Even a small T/M&M budget of $3-$6 per sub per year is likely to return many times that investment in customer retention," said Gary Schultz, MRG's president, referring to testing and monitor solutions and how operators are using these tools.

 

Other key findings in the report include:

 

Pre-deployment testing is one of the best investments an IPTV operator can make at any time, because it helps anticipate new pressure-points due to added services and subscriber usage.

 

It's best to design testing system architectures on one of four levels of service — basic, intermediate, advanced or converged — keeping in mind how the system will change over the next 3-5 years.

 

QoS and QoE measurements roughly match the OSI Layers; for example, QoE actually is achieved both through objective and subjective measurements, with objective measurements done in OSI Layers 4-7.