Mtnl Selects Time Broadband For Iptv

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MUMBAI: State-owned telecom major MTNL has selected Time Broadband Services Pvt Ltd, India (TBSPL) to develop and handle the content delivery network for its IPTV services.

TBSPL has signed a seven-year deal which will have IT major HP as its systems integrator. The company will design and deploy the content delivery network, aggregate and repurpose content, and market and promote the services.

"We have signed with Time Broadband as our franchisee for setting up the content delivery network. The first launch of IPTV will be in Delhi and Mumbai will follow. We expect to launch the service commercially by June," says MTNL executive director, Mumbai, MS Rana.

Time Broadband will have Israel-based Infogate Online as its middleware vendor while Verimatrix Inc. will provide content protection solutions. The digital headend will be from Optibase. Amino and Softier Inc. set-top boxes are being tested.

"We are extremely glad to participate with a telecom giant for the IPTV project. While MTNL is investing on the networking technology, we are pumping in money for the content delivery network. HP is our systems integrator and will also be responsible for risk mitigation of the technology. The scalability test is being done in their laboratory at Grenoble in the US," says Time Broadband managing director Sujata Dev.

MTNL has invested in deploying a networking platform developed by Ericsson. On this network, MTNL can run its triple play services - voice, data and video.

The telecom company is employing ADSL 2+ technology that can safely take up to 24 mbps at the origination point, says MTNL general manager broadband Peeyush Agrawal. "For the video part, we are using MPEG-4 compression technology," he adds

ambani bhai ab to sudhar jaaa...kucch dekho competeti9on ko

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IPTV set to be launched this Diwali

New Delhi: Trials for the Internet Protocal TV (IPTV), through which one can enjoy TV programmes on PC's and surf Internet on TV sets, are complete and the state-owned MTNL is all ready to launch it in Mumbai and Delhi from this festive season, but for some clarifications from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The MTNL would be launching the service for the first time in the country in collaboration with the Time Broadband Services Pvt Ltd. The new technology will deliver a superior and interactive television experience with the industry's most advanced voice, video and data services. All broadband customers of the MTNL can access to the IPTV.

Subcribers to MTNL's broadband service marketed under the Tri-band name, can make and receive phone calls, surf the Internet and use IPTV simultaneously. The IPTV will offer a bouquet of television channels and video-on-demand. For accessing these services, a set-top box will be needed. The box connects to the TV on one end and the MTNL line on the other. Several services will cost roughly about Rs 400 a month, which might be a little more than the subscribers get under CAS, but then under CAS one can't get interactive services and Internet.

The state-owned telecom service provider would have launched the service even earlier too but it is waiting for TRAI's view on its bid to air Free to Air TV channels through IPTV's. TRAI is grappling with a number of legal points on this issue. It has been indecisive about which category, whether of telecom or broadcasting, the IPTV should be put into. It is also grappling with the point that if the IPTV is also allowed to air Free to Air channel, it would contravene CAS.

However, TRAI sources said that if the MTNL wanted they could still launch the service with only pay channels, as taking care of legalities later was their problem.

Director Operations Time Broadband Services Amit Dev told UNI that their trials were complete and they were ready to start operations as soon as asked by the MTNL.

Source : UNI