The technology of television-over-IP (IPTV) allows users to manage both voice and video services, as well as send text and instant messages, all at the same time as watching their televisions. Cable television firms first decided to offer digital voice services some years ago, but the technology had not yet advanced enough to make this a viable options for most users. In response to this competition from cable companies, the major telecommunication carriers began to design IPTV technology. Rather than being a stand-alone product, IPTV is bundled together with other services and technologies, including data, wireless, voice, and video. These are all held together by an IP-based Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architecture. Because IPTV relies on broadband infrastructure, telecommunication carriers are busily working to upgrade their networks and broadband capabilities. In order to provide a high-quality end-to-end IPTV solution, Nortel has brought multiple technologies and products from different vendors together. For example, Nortel uses digital program insertion technology from Terayon, content security from Irdeto, middleware from Minerva, encoding technology from OptiBase and Harmonic, and set-top boxes from Amino. This collection of services and technologies requires an advanced Operations Support System (OSS) to hold it all together. Two of the available OSS options are Microsoft's Connected Service Framework (CSF), and NetCracker from NetCracker Technology.