ITU-T Study Group 16 established the Focus Group on Full Service VDSL (FS-VDSL) in October 2002. The
goal of the Focus Group was to develop a set of ITU-T Recommendations to define a
new multi-service video-centric network platform based upon VDSL delivery in the access network, which will enable operators and service providers to quickly and economically provide end-users with a rich mix of video, data, and voice services – then called
triple play.
This was the
first case in which an existing industry forum – the FS-VDSL Committee – was fully merged into an "affiliated" ITU-T organization as an
ITU-T A.7 Focus Group.
The FG-FS-VDSL had its first meeting in San Francisco, CA, USA, 5-6 September 2002, and during this meeting it approved a
five-part FS-VDSL Focus Group Technical Specification (FGTS). Four parts of the FS-VDSL FGTS were progressed into two ITU-T Recommendations and one Supplement. The FG-FS-VDSL also produced
six whitepapers.
The FG-FS-VDSL concluded its activities in May 2003 after seven months of formal operations, having accomplished its goal of transposing the triple play technical specifications (initially developed under an industry forum) as international standards (ITU-T Recommendations) and a Supplement. Its work laid the foundations for the IPTV concept, which evolved in ITU-T under various platforms (FG-IPTV, IPTV-GSI) until reaching a mainstream standardization flow under ITU-T Study Group 16 Question 13/16.
