BellSouth, finally is revealing its big IP-TV and next generation DSL plans. At an investor conference today, Mark Feidler, BellSouth’s Chief Strategy Officer pointed out that his company was going to use a combination of FTTC, FTTH and ADSL2+ technologies to deliver Triple Play services to the consumers in its region. He went on to explain that the company is going to use something called bonding, which uses two copper pairs to deliver ADSL2+ service over one connection.

BellSouth wants to be able to deliver 12 Mbps of bandwidth with ADSL2+. But all that is in the future. In the near term, the company will offer download speeds between 4 megabits per second and 6 mbps, and upload speeds from 512 kbps to 768 kbps, according to the Associated Press which adds that the upgrade is going to cost about $2 billion.

According to Feidler, the company wants to sell this service to 30 of its top metros, or a third of its total market. These areas have about 80% of the high-spending folks who have no qualms about dropping $150 or more on telecom services. The company is also testing a VoIP service in Florida and plans to take it mass market. Clearly, BellSouth is taking a more pragmatic and cautious approach to the whole triple play thing, unlike more deep pocketed rivals like Verizon and SBC who are dropping mega-billions to become pashas of IP.

BLS plans to spend $225/home passed for the upgrade to fiber plants and $80 incremental spend on ADSL/home passed which totals $305/home; well below $500-$600 SBC suggested it was going to spend for video system to its customers. Which strategy wins at the end depends on customers willingness to buy video from their phone providers. CMCSA, TWX and COX are not sitting still. (Investing Money)