The telecom industry in India is currently witnessing what marketers call dual play. That is, an end user is provisioned for two services through a single broadband connection. First is a high-speed Internet and telephone service over a single broadband connection in the case of phone companies and the second is a high-speed Internet and TV service over a single broadband connection in the case of cable TV companies. But the future of the industry is in triple play, where in a service is packaged allowing a typical consumer to purchase video, high-speed Internet and telephony from a single provider under one subscription. And if this service is delivered wireless, it is called quad play.

Service providers around the globe see triple play services not merely as a means of increasing top-line revenue, but as a means of self-preservation, says a study by Infonetics Research in the US. Network operators are redefining themselves to be the one-stop shop for all things digital for residential and enterprise subscribers, and they believe triple play services will give them the competitive edge they need to succeed. North American, European, and Asia Pacific service providers participating in the study ("Service Provider Plans for IP Triple Play") report that on average nearly 40 percent of their capital expenditures were spent on triple play network equipment in 2005. The majority of service providers in the study plan to further increase capital expenditures in the next 12 months on IPTV equipment, broadband CPE (customer premises equipment), broadband aggregation equipment, and voice over broadband equipment, and they expect revenue growth in all areas of triple play services.

The true revenue potential of triple play service can only be unlocked by applying a converged delivery infrastructure for all services, enabling a seamless integration and bundling of services and applications. Two significant results of this are: higher average revenue per user (ARPU) paired with higher user penetration and retention rates. Triple play would give end users full control over creating personalized service bundles at the price and performance level they desire which means a profound transformation from selling commodities to a user-centric multimedia broadband experience. The economies of scale achieved through this shift can translate into cost savings for end users when compared to buying unbundled services from various sources. More importantly, a new, enriched and value-added service experience will win over customers and can evolve with their needs.

In the US, the triple play market is in an expansion mode with Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, and AT&T competing intensely. Triple play services are offered by cable television operators as well as by telecommunication operators. It paves the way for these service providers to compete with one another. According to the latest ChangeWave Alliance consumer telecom survey, conducted Jan 25-29, 2007, a total of 15 percent of respondents said they currently pay for a ‘triple play' service. This shows an increase of 4 percentage points compared to the last survey conducted in October 2006. Also in the survey, 18 percent of respondents showed an interest to sign-up for a triple play subscription in the next 90 days. This is clearly a great sign of the way the market is evolving in the US.

Enablers for triple play are falling in place at a fast pace in India. Our industry has the equipments and know-how to provide triple play. The big telecom service providers and the organized cable TV operators are already providing quality ‘dual play' broadband service. As of June '07, India has 9.27 million Internet subscribers out of which 2.52 million are broadband subscribers. The comparable figures for June '06 were 7.71 million Internet subscribers out of which 1.56 million are broadband subscribers. Since a broadband connectivity is vital for the triple play to come in, we are still looking towards the broadband subscribers to become a critical mass. The above said numbers are thus promising. When the total no. of Internet subscribers rose 20 percent, the broadband subscribers grew by a stupendous 60 percent. We can clearly see the consumers making an increasing shift from the dial-up connections to broadband connections. Broadband offers a minimum transmission speed of 256 kbps, starting at approximately four times the speed of dial-up Internet connection.

TRAI set a target of 18 million Internet subscribers (including broadband) and 9 million broadband subscribers to achieve by the end of year 2007. We are certainly missing the targets by huge margins even though we are growing at a good pace. With the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announcing this year as the year of broadband, the environment is set to change in the coming years. The BSNL, which has almost 50 percent of Internet subscribers, is now spending Rs.20 billion to set up its broadband infrastructure to proliferate in urban and rural areas across India. BSNL also has plans to deploy Wi-MAX in rural areas where it is difficult to offer broadband connection over copper lines. Figure 1 shows the forecasted subscriber base and household penetration rate for broadband as estimated by the Frost & Sullivan.