IPTV Providers Blame Set-Top Boxes for Service Problems and Customer Complaints

Early IPTV deployers said at the TelcoTV Conference & Expo they’ve encountered painful ongoing problems with set-top boxes (STB), and often the middleware inside them, that have also incurred the wrath of many subscribers.

Two rural telephone companies, Canby Telcom of Canby, Ore., and Hancock Telecom of Maxwell, Iowa., complained of STB problems that centered on what they see as the too frequent need to reboot the devices for a wide variety of reasons – a process they agreed most customers didn’t want to be part of, and listed as a top concern with the IPTV services.

But these two were only part of a common thread here at the show among a broader set of providers, who also blamed STB vendors for delays in service launches and for not being capable of supporting offerings such as interactive IPTV. SES Americom has confirmed that unspecified problems with STBs have delayed the launch of its IP-PRIME managed video service package. (See story)

It’s not crystal clear, however, if the STBs are problem-filled or slow to evolve, or whether early deployers are expecting too much functionality and capabilities too soon. Cable operators have been using STBs to provide TV for decades.

“The problems have been occurring way too often which is not acceptable to us nor our customers,” said Keith Galitz, president of Canby Telephone. “In a recent survey that we conduct three months after customers sign up for service, customers listed it as one of their top frustrations. It’s a combination of the STB and the middleware, but customers don’t care, they just want the service to work.”

The problems, when they could be identified, focused on having to reboot the STBs to perform standard software upgrades and to correct problems with the IPTV viewing experience. Galitz also cited STBs as “not having enough capacity for us to be able to offer the service that customers want like [personal video recorders]” that’s keeping his company from making a significant penetration in the competing satellite provider’s customer base.

Hancock CTO Mike Knoll said the reboot problems it had long experienced, “which were happening way too often,” had recently been solved, claiming he only had to reboot once in the last three months. He told the audience at a panel session Wednesday morning, however, that “one thing you will start to hear with your deployments is: Everything will be taken care of in the next release.”

The two execs explained that rebooting the STBs was something of a standard operating procedure when problems arose with the service picture.

“You can solve most problems by just rebooting them,” said Galitz. Knoll added that, “when the picture stops, you reboot the box, but you may never know what caused the problem.”

It’s not that rebooting STBs is takes a great deal of time, it’s more than customers don’t want to engage in the process, the two IPTV providers agreed.

“Talking the customer through how to reboot the STB is not easy, but a lot of problems can be fixed by doing it,” said Knoll.

Canby Telcom www.canbytel.com  

Hancock Telecom www.teamhancock.com

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