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mVision to Power China Telecom’s IPTV
[November 16, 2005]

mVision to Power China Telecom’s IPTV


By Susan J. Campbell
 
China Telecom is expecting to launch its new IPTV service by the end of the year and it has chosen mVision from UTStarcom, Inc. to support this new service. As the largest fixed-line telecom operator in China, it will service up to 5,000 subscribers to its IPTV offering scheduled for Shanghai.


 
UTStarcom China does not expect the agreement to produce record revenues initially, but it does recognize the potential for the China market in the long term. According to ABI Research, the Asia Pacific region is expected to account for more than 50% of worldwide IPTV subscribers, projected to exceed 110 million people by 2010.

 
mVision IPTV was deployed by Softbank Broadband  in Japan for the launch of the BBTV commercial IPTV service in July. This partnering has proven to be a success and UTStarcom executives believe the same will be true in China. The country represents more 1.3 billion people and has a television saturation of over 90 percent. The launch of commercial IPTV in Shanghai is the result of an integrated commercial trial by China Telecom in five providences throughout the country. The initial package will offer Shangai subscriber’s live broadcast television and videos-on-demand.
 
Through the use of mVision, local exchange carriers and service providers can utilize existing broadband infrastructure to deliver traditional television programming as well as advanced content. This addition in services can mean an increase in revenues in addition to customer satisfaction and retention.
 
Customers subscribing to IPTV powered with mVision will have everyday television programming in real-time or through deferred-time streaming. Along with regular programming and video on demand, service providers will be able to offer personalized content, television schedules, interactive television, unlimited data applications, video surveillance, video network gaming and distance learning.
 
In order to operate efficiently and deliver content rapidly, mVision divides every program into ‘program segments’ to make them more manageable. Through the use of UTStarcom’s Broadband Media Distribution Protocol (BMDP), mVision caches program segments on network edge servers based on viewing demand patterns and operator-specified policies. Service providers are able to store the segments of the beginning of a feature-length program directly on the network edge and consistently deliver the remaining segments once the program starts. This design is intended to accelerate content delivery, reduce storage requirements and minimize congestion on the network.
 
Currently, mVision has a distributed architecture and a cluster-based server design enabling the support of over 20,000 subscribers and an ability to deliver over 100,000 hours of media content per Telco rack. The focus to keep the cost of entry down is evident by the design of modules with industry standard, off-the-shelf hardware components. UTStarcom positions mVision to provide operators with the ability to economically increase the capacity of the system proportionate to subscriber volume and storage requirement growth.
 
UTStarcom is a designer, manufacturer, retailer and installer of a suite of IP-based wire-line, wireless, optical and switching solutions for operators in fast-emerging and established telecommunications markets worldwide. The company’s main focus is on opportunities in mainland China while exploiting that success to market their products throughout the world.
 
China Telecom is the leading provider of wire-line telecommunication services in 20 provinces, Autonomous Regions and Municipalities of China.
 
Although this agreement represents very little in terms of the ratio of the affected market in China, the potential for expansion over the next several years is tremendous. China is the world’s largest and fastest growing telecommunications market. With the ability to offer viewers next-generation viewing options on-demand, IPTV could quickly spread throughout the viewing country and produce significant revenues for both China Telecom and UTStarcom. This is one area of the industry to keep watching.
 

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