Photos: Tuning in to GlobalComm

More than 500 software and equipment makers have descended on Chicago this week for the Telecommunications Association's GlobalComm trade show. Many products at the show have focused on helping phone companies deliver IPTV services and implement new IP Multimedia Subsystem or IMS standards, which will make adding new services easier and less expensive.

AT&T, the largest phone company in the United States, has a booth at GlobalComm where it's displaying a number of services for large business customers. The company is also preparing for a wider commercial launch of its IPTV service. It's been testing the service in San Antonio for several months, and it expects to deploy the service to more cities in Texas later this summer, with deployments in about 15 to 20 cities by the end of 2006.

During a keynote address at the GlobalComm trade show, John Stankey, AT&T's chief technology officer, outlined the company's strategy and plans to upgrade its long-distance fiber network.

Microsoft is demonstrating its IPTV solution at the GlobalComm trade show this week in Chicago. Microsoft TV IPTV Edition is being used to power IP-based TV networks that are currently being deployed by large carriers all over the world, including AT&T in the United States, BT in the United Kingdom and Deutsche Telekom in Germany.

One of the features enabled by the IPTV network is the ability to preview multiple shows at once. Each of the smaller pictures uses about 200 kilobits per second worth of bandwidth, while the larger picture uses between 2Mbps for standard definition streams and 4Mbps for high-definition streams.

Ultimately, Ericsson hopes to deliver personalized TV services on three screens--computer, television and wireless device--using a network enabled by IMS or IP Multimedia subsystems, a set of standards that will help telephone operators add new services more quickly and easily. The demonstration on the show floor allowed users to wirelessly view on a living room TV digital photos stored in their mobile phones and to access content stored on a home PC via mobile phones.