Following up on its unmetered access triumph in the U.K., Telewest Communications Monday agreed to
co-create broadband services with U.S. consulting firm Andersen Consulting.
The new jointly-owned company is charged with developing and licensing for
the up-and-coming sector. Video on demand is scheduled to be the first
product to hit the launch pad, with its release expected next month.
Interactive television and advertising, wireless services, games and online
banking are a few of the other product categories.
The venture’s sights are set on a market of 50.8 million Western European
digital television-enabled households, an statistic which Jupiter projects
will materialize in 2003. Andersen’s own research tallies the European
broadband market as a sector worth £7 billion ($11 billion).
In respect to Europe’s crowded tech IPO trail, the new company says that a
flotation would be a “medium term option.”
The London-based joint venture, which has yet to be named, will be led by
Andersen Consulting’s Arjang Zadeh as the acting chief executive officer
and the staff will also be drawn from the consulting firm.
“This is an explosive growth market, in which CEOs of major network
companies know that broadband interactive services are crucial for their
future,” Zadeh said.
Telewest (TWSTY) will also act as the new company’s first client, which the company boasts will solidify its leadership in bringing broadband to U.K. consumers. The
telecom jump-started the U.K.’s Internet market with the recent introduction
of Surfunlimited, an unmetered Net access program which was flooded by consumer demand.
The two partners previously worked together to create Telewest’s digital
interactive platform. Telewest is partially owned by industry major Microsoft (MSFT).
Andersen Consulting also said that the venture will deliver broadband to
North America and the Far East in its longer term goals.
