Just one week after a major telecom
BT said it would use Microsoft’s IPTV in the United Kingdom as part of a triple-play service bundle of voice, high -speed data and video.
”BT and Microsoft share a common vision for converged entertainment in the home,” Gavin Patterson, group managing director of BT Retail, said in a statement.
The London voice and data provider and the Redmond, Wash., software giant did not release a timeline for IPTV rollout.
About a dozen large telecoms in North America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific are participating in the trials, which advance from lab, to a limited number of test homes, and finally to 1,000 homes.
Throughout the stages, Microsoft, the telecoms and other partners, such as set-top box makers, work at integrating front and back-end systems.
In the United States, Microsoft’s current high-profile IPTV relationship with SBC
Communications is a 10-year, $400
million deal to use Microsoft’s IPTV software.
IPTV is a crucial piece of the regional telecom multi-billion-dollar plan to use fiber-optic cable in order to deliver a “triple- play” bundle of television, phone and high-speed Internet services to consumers.
The IP TV service will include customizable channel lineups,
video-on-demand, digital video recording, interactive program guides, event
notifications and content protection features. Microsoft will also resell
the IPTV platform through Alcatel .