How important is channel surfing to you? I ask because people grow impatient if they don't get an instant channel change after they press the buttons on their remote. Any wait longer than a second is often considered intolerable and this simple observation might pose big problems for AT&T and Verizon. Let me explain.

Both telcos have touted their big-capacity pipes and are aggressively pushing their IPTV offerings. But a more mundane goal remains elusive: letting people channel surf. This shortfall has Microsoft (both companies' IPTV software vendor) catching some serious flak. Microsoft, naturally, claims that no such problem exists but some rumors are emerging that this problem may not be fixed this year.

For example, AT&T is expected to announce by year-end the successful rollout of its Lightspeed U-verse TV service. But one person familiar with the effort says not all the pieces will be fully in place when the service debuts. "Lightspeed will get its 16-market launch," says a technology executive close to the project. But "some of the features will be coming later, like fast channel change."

A Microsoft representative said AT&T's U-verse customers "have instant channel changing today." AT&T says it has a "good relationship" with Microsoft and that "fast channel change is available" to Lightspeed U-verse customers as we speak.

Verizon has its fiber optic network service running in several select markets. As The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, Verizon engineers had to take over some of Microsoft's work in developing applications for the TV project. Microsoft, again, says that everything there is going well in that project, too.

So think about this: the TV offering that the telcos are selling isn't phenomenally better than what we get from the cable companies. So, even seemingly small issues like slow channel changing, present big problems.