As anybody following the technology media of South Africa knows, Telkom is preparing to enter the subscription television arena via their fixed line infrastructure, utilising IPTV (Internet Protocol Television). "A general definition of IPTV is television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the technologies used for computer networks." [wikipedia.org]

There is absolutely no way that IPTV could function on today's broadband infrastructure at a decent video resolution. There is no future for IPTV in a capped environment, as a 3Gb cap would get ravished by the shear bandwidth IPTV requires within a couple of hours. Youtube eating your bandwidth? Don't even think of streaming IPTV. The cost of seven hours of IPTV viewing on existing broadband packages was calculated to be about R680, excluding subcription costs.[IOLTechnology]

Currently, the cost of IPTV would simply be astronomical. That Telkom is sincere in their IPTV plans is a definite sign that the South African internet infrastructure is set for a massive overhaul. Telkom media spokesperson, Chris van Zyl says the following, “IPTV will not be delivered on SA's existing infrastructure. Telkom is busy with the roll-out of its next-generation network using ADSL 2+ technology. This technology enables the IPTV traffic to be separated from the Internet traffic. We don't know what decisions will be made about the capping of Internet traffic, but the IPTV traffic will be uncapped and will not impact on a customer's Internet usage at all,”

The question, however, is whether consumers will not only see uncapped and high-bandwidth IPTV connections at reasonable rates, but also comparative internet connections at the same tarrifs, since both are basicly the same thing, using the same technology and the same network. Taking into account the strong anti-consumer-friendly approach Telkom is known for, the answer is not necessarily yes. In fact, it is more likely that internet usage will stay the same or even deteriorate as Telkom prioritizes their network for delivering IPTV.

When IPTV sees the light, the Free Bandwidth Campaign would have all the proof they need that Telkom has local bandwidth to burn. Will this mean the end to local capping? Div0 thinks not...