Mrs and Mr Gulati are very annoyed with the mess in their home. They have multiple wires snaking along the various walls of their home. There is the land-line phone wire snaking along the entire living room. And it is not alone because they are joined in by the cable TV wire which sneaks in through the window and then snakes its way to wherever the television is set. Their son however was not happy with the picture quality of the cable service and had gotten a DTH dish installed. Since the dish is installed on the roof, that wire seems to have descended from the skies into the room and straight into the set top box. As if that's not all, their son needs his daily fix of music downloads, online chatting and social networking. Hence, broadband Internet seemed like a perfect solution, but that also came with its own dedicated wire and a wireless router.

The Gulati household is not the only one annoyed with the multiple wires running around the house. Anyone who has a television, land-line telephone and broadband connection at home faces this issue. But now, there seems to be a solution. It is called IPTV (Internet Protocol Television). Though the name may lead you to believe that it is only a television service, but it offers a lot more. And you thought that the good old telephone wire is not good enough for anything else! We try to explain the technology, and how it can be useful to you.

IPTV basically survives on the Triple-Play Technology. In simpler terms, a single wire connected to a single piece of hardware will provide television signals, telephone and high speed broadband connection. The service provider, whoever you choose, will stretch a single wire into your home through the junction box outside on the street. This wire terminates with a connection to the wall point which is installed by the tech team. A wire from this point is used for the land line telephone connection. A second wire from this wall point terminates at the DSL modem or a Wi-Fi router. From the router comes another wire which is connected with the IPTV capable STB which is connected to your TV. Normally, during this whole setup, you will not have multiple wires running around in the same room without achieving much purpose. Apart from this, there are a lot of other features which are unique to the IPTV experience. We try to explain them in greater detail, and how it compares to the other kid on the block-DTH.