AT&T is spending billions to deliver IPTV services and is considered a pioneer in this sector of communication, yet all AT&T Labs’ vice president for video and converged services can talk about in discussing potential future services are applications already available on the Internet? Bummer.

The charming Peter Hill gave an interesting presentation Wednesday during his keynote at the TelcoTV show in Atlanta. But the punch line was that everything he talked about was basically a transplant of what’s available today – usually for free – over the Internet.

Here are some of the things he demoed under the umbrella of “forward looking” work at AT&T Labs:

• IPTV-based e-mail and SMS

• A call management application running on the TV

• The ability for U-verse subscribers to receive videos from AT&T Videoshare customers on their TVs

• The ability to listen to podcasts on the TV

• A “family finder” feature that tracks the whereabouts of family members using a wireless phone, GPS technology and a mapping application

He said none of these applications – or the companies like Google involved with them – are necessarily on the roadmap for AT&T. But he emphasized that what they have in common is that they allow AT&T to leverage the “decades of innovation” already available on the Web.

I know it’s very early for IPTV and, for now at least, telcos are largely occupied with getting service parity with the cableco and DBS video services. But this speech was heavily focused on talking about the future. And I understand the benefit of moving some applications – such as photo-sharing – to a more communal device, like the TV, in a more family-oriented settling, like the family room. But, as I’ve said before, I truly hope IPTV is about more than just me-too video services, the Internet transplanted to the TV, and caller ID.