Even so, IPTV is a "small part of the revenue," Caskey says, although he won't specify how small. "I would say it's one of the fastest growing parts of the business."

    UTStarcom offers an "end-to-end" IPTV package, as do others, including Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU - message board), Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC - message board), Nokia Siemens Networks , and Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT - message board). (See Nortel Eyes IPTV Prospects, Ericsson: Tandberg Is Key to IPTV, Ericsson, Nortel Push on IPTV, Alcatel-Lucent Updates on IPTV, and NSN Wins IPTV Deal.)

    But rather than surround itself with partners, UTStarcom provides everything itself, from the video headend down to the set-top box.

    That includes software. UTStarcom owns its own IPTV middleware and offers its own digital rights management (DRM) technology. While the company is willing to bring in partners for certain pieces -- some carriers are already wedded to certain headends or DRM, for instance -- it's able to supply most of an IPTV network on its own, except for routers and Ethernet switches.

    Some of the technology came from the 2003 acquisition of a startup called RollingStreams, a name UTStarcom eventually coopted for the whole IPTV package, dropping the previous mVision brand. (See UTStarcom Nabs RollingStreams, Xebeo and UTStarcom Rolls With New IPTV Name.)

    Building an entire IPTV suite sounds like a lot of trouble, but Caskey says UTStarcom didn't have much choice. UTStarcom customer Softbank BB Corp. was interested in IPTV, and UTStarcom couldn't find the right partners for an end-to-end play. (See Softbank Focuses on UTStarcom's mVision.)

    "This was a good four years ago. Nobody at that time was really keen on our thought or intent -- which was all IP and streaming. Most people at the time were about download-and-play, to the set-top box," Caskey says.