IPDR.org in Bid to Develop Accounting and Settlement Standards for IPTV

The Internet Protocol Detail Record Organization (IPDR.org)--an open consortium of service providers, software and equipment vendors, system integrators, and billing and mediation vendors, which developed the Internet Protocol Detail Record interface used by IP service providers to capture network data usage information, and whose overall goal is to facilitate service measurement and exchange for next-generation IP services by implementing de facto standards--has announced plans to hold an open, industry-wide meeting as part of an initiative to develop accounting and settlement standards for IPTV services. The organization says that the meeting will allow all interested parties--including telcos, broadband network operators, cable companies, content providers, support vendors and analysts--to influence the direction of the initiative. The meeting, which is sponsored by Cisco Systems, is scheduled to take place on February 23rd and 24th at Cisco's headquarters (3750 Cisco Way Building 15, San Jose, CA 95134). There is no fee to attend the meeting, which is open to non-IPDR members. The deadline for registration is February 16th, and attendance will be on a first-come-first-served basis. Parties interested in registering, should send an email, containing their full contact info, to Marianne Jenkinson at mjenkinson@ipdr.org. (Note: more information is available at www.ipdr.org.)

According to IPDR.org, the goals of its initiative include: understanding the requirements for IPTV accounting; summarizing challenges associated with all network data-related aspects of IPTV, such as advertising, content settlement, user behavior, capacity management, multimedia events, and other IPTV service components; developing technical specifications to address the needs of IPTV overall accounting and settlement; and creating an industry-wide task force comprised of leaders and contributors. "IPTV brings the promise of genuine interactivity, networked and personalized video and blended services," Tal Givoly, director of IPDR.org and chief scientist at Amdocs, said in a prepared statement. "In order to benefit from IPTV, organizations must rely on standards that would reduce costs and increase their ability to innovate their service offerings and business models. By hosting this meeting, IPDR.org is taking a leadership role in establishing the global standards needed to allow providers to capitalize on the potential of IPTV."

(Note: this article was published in the February 6th issue of the InteractiveTV Today [itvt] email newsletter.)

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