by Peter J. Brown

There is the triple play – voice, video and data, all on one bill – and then there is The Texas Triple Play.

First of all, let me say that the mid-2005 legislative bombshell in Texas in the form of a statewide franchise for the IPTV or telco TV sector may put a huge hit on the satellite broadband industry in particular. Granted, it might not amount to much, but the fact that this was rolled out at the same time that S. 1583, the "Universal Service for the 21st Century Act" emerged on Capitol Hill with its enormous rural broadband subsidy plan, only complicates the situation even more. I hear that it is really rattling the cable crowd to boot, and not just in Texas.

A statewide franchise in Texas is something that definitely saves you a lot of driving time and gas money. Despite what your daddy told you, ie, beware of Texan legislators bearing gifts, a statewide franchise with a simultaneous congressionally mandated $500 million per year subsidy in motion is a gift indeed for somebody seeking to deploy ADSL or FTTH or whatever quickly all over the outskirts of Laredo, and around a bunch of other Texas towns too.

So what exactly is the Texas Triple Play? Step One. Get your governor real comfortable in the White House for 8 years. Always a good first step. By the way, does anyone know what the monthly cable bill is for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? As for the ranch in Crawford? Looks definitely like DBS country to me.

Step Two. Stand around with your head in your hands looking puzzled, somewhat depressed and bewildered because the price of oil finally inched past the $60 per barrel mark which might cause most average Americans to think twice before jumping in their cars and heading out for a night at the movies. There is nothing quite like watching as that favorite American pursuit of taking to the highway is transformed into something user unfriendly and then boosting the biz environment for the phone line folks. Will consumers boost the online movie rental business in turn? Stay tuned.

Now hold on a minute. What did he just say? Connecting a boost in world oil prices to a boost in the online movie rental business is a stretch a whole lot bigger than a trip across Texas. Texans and everyone else are still jumping in their cars with much enthusiasm, and the movie season this summer has been a flop for reasons other than gas prices. Right?

Getting back to the Texas Triple Play. Step Three. Think big, very big, Texas style BIG as in more than just a bit monumental. Hand the telcos a statewide franchise for IPTV at precisely the same time that converged networking is about take off like a rocket and nobody even blinks when the phrase IP Multimedia Subsystems is mentioned. I understand that half the telco lobbyists in Texas are driving around with IMS bumper stickers prominently on display.

Step Four – that’s right, only in Texas would a triple play be so overwhelming in sheer scope and magnitude that it would require a Step Four. Give electric utilities the green light to offer broadband-over-power-lines (BPL) services, and then give thanks to the fact that the whole Enron mess is behind us.

So there you have it. The Texas Triple Play.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that if this flies, telcos are allowed to raise rates in Texas. That means that there is a good chance that the annual rate increase may begin to take its toll, kind of like what we are going through at the gas pump. Maybe, when it is all said and done, this will give rise to the American version of Freeview, rising triumphant in some part of Texas. They might well end up calling it, T-View.

Years ago, at the summer SBCA shows in Nashville, the parking lot at the Opryland Hotel was where you went to get heatstroke and the latest buzz about parabolic C-band sensations. I remember learning one important lesson. No matter how good the fiberglass dishes looked, if someone forgot to put the mesh in, they were worthless. No mesh, no reflection, no TV.

While the statewide telco TV franchise in Texas might look real good to some folks, I wonder about the mesh.

On a more serious note, for those who have not yet had a chance to read the July 2005 Department of Defense (DoD) report on the commercial FSS satcom service procurement process, here is a quick summary of that 10-page report. By the way, there is no timetable for any MSS procurement review.

First, increased reliance on commercial FSS satcom systems will continue at least until the Wideband Gapfiller System (WGS) – the launch of the first of 5 planned WGS X- band/Ka-band GEOs is now scheduled for late 2006 – and the Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) are fielded.

Second, DoD is sticking with the existing Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) Satellite Transmissions Services Global (DSTS-G) contract vehicle, while investigating future contracting options.

Finally, as part of the cost/benefit analysis undertaken by the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) as it evaluated multi-year contracts, DISA ended up supporting DoD’s current use of a base year and negotiated option year contract structure. Also, with respect to centralized funding of commercial bandwidth, DoD does not consider this to have significant benefit over the current approach of decentralized funding by individual user organizations.

Go Red Sox.

Peter Brown is Via Satellite’s senior Multimedia & Homeland Security editor.