SCTE : A glance at the future

As at NCTA last month in New Orleans, the Cable-Tec convention hosted by the SCTE this month in Philadelphia is expected to attract a compact, yet important, group of Latin American cable operators, especially from Mexico and Brazil.

While geared towards the domestic scene, the SCTE show allows visitors to get acquainted with the latest developments regarding

Triple and Quadruple Play, ad insertion, network maintenance and optimization and take a look at what their systems might look like in a few years. The major U.S. vendors have noticed this and include in their staff some sales executives qualified to answer questions and tailor the solutions to these client's needs.

The Latin Americans are worried this year about increasing competition from the telcos, especially after the news about Telefónica planning to start operations in Venezuela and Telmex launching its service in Brazil and probably Mexico by the end of this year. MVS, too, has obtained a license in Mexico and seems to be nailing down an alliance with U.S. Dish Network that will provide additional competition to the cable operators in this country.

Due to differences in market size and purchasing power, Latin Americans usually need an adaptation of what might be a solution in the States. This caveat aside, industry leaders from South of the border are usually eager to adopt any service local regulation allows in their country; the healthy shape of the economy in most Latin American countries helps them to be bullish about any initiative that will reasonably help to increase the per-customer revenue.

Most countries are trailing behind the U.S. and Europe regarding issues such as Internet access bandwidth, a key issue when selling the service. But, it is reasonable to assume that services will improve in the future, thus justifying current interest and allowing the leading players to keep an advantage over their competitors. Meeting other players and seeing vendors at SCTE is also part of the game in an industry that is becoming increasingly interconnected.