ALAMEDA, Calif., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- UTStarcom, Inc. , a global leader in IP-based, end-to-end networking solutions and services, today announced a three-year contract through its partnership with AKSH Optifibre Ltd. to deploy its RollingStream(TM) end-to-end IPTV solution with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) in India. The contract represents the first commercial IPTV deployment in India and AKSH Optifibre Ltd. is the first company to launch IPTV in India. AKSH is the pioneer in optifibre fiber and cable technologies and their main product is a Fiber-to-the-Home solution.
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"Consumers have come to expect sterling services that are both innovative and affordable from MTNL," said Shri RSP Sinha, chairman and managing director at MTNL. "We take the lead, yet again, in ushering in a true revolution in home entertainment with the country's first IPTV service. IPTV provides an interactive viewing experience and allows for multitude of exciting revenue generating applications to be deployed. Our existing presence in more than four million homes in New Delhi and Mumbai through our broadband service will give MTNL a tremendous headstart in changing the way people watch television."
The service, which will utilize MTNL's existing broadband network as the content delivery backbone, will consist of traditional broadcast television, video- and music-on-demand, videoconferencing capabilities and time-shifted TV, allowing users to access television content on any channel up to one week in the past. All MTNL broadband subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai are anticipated to have access to the service, which launched in December 2006.
"By pricing the basic level of service at 125 rupees, we hope to attract a large number of our broadband subscribers to our IPTV service and drive revenue growth through the additional value-added services, like time-shift capabilities and video-on-demand, enabled by UTStarcom's RollingStream," Sinha added.
"This contract is a testament to both UTStarcom's worldwide leadership in the IPTV industry as well as our dominant position as a provider of innovative broadband technologies to the Indian market," said David King, senior vice president of international sales and marketing. "UTStarcom's award-winning RollingStream IPTV solution is now deployed with leading service providers in China, Japan and India, which we believe proves UTStarcom's position as the leader in IPTV deployments worldwide."
"The cooperation with UTStarcom ideally complements our know-how," said Dr. Kailash S. Choudhari, managing director at AKSH Optifibre. "UTStarcom's RollingStream offers an end-to-end IPTV solution enabling us to deliver broadcast quality TV and on-demand entertainment service programming over IP networks. This enables us to offer even more comprehensive solutions and services in the area of IPTV, now and for the next three years. The start of IPTV services with MTNL is clearing the way for deployment of Fiber-to-the-Home solutions at the subscriber's home."
About UTStarcom's RollingStream
UTStarcom's RollingStream is an end-to-end solution designed for telecommunications operators and broadband service providers to deliver broadcast quality TV and on-demand entertainment programming over IP networks. RollingStream is designed to offer service providers the scalability, reliability, and bandwidth efficiency to support new services including broadcast TV, Network PVR (n-PVR), Video on Demand (VoD), and Near Video on Demand (NVoD) over existing network infrastructures. This may result in opportunities for increased revenues, new services, and improved customer satisfaction and retention.
For more information about UTStarcom's RollingStream solution, please visit: http://www.utstar.com/Solutions/Broadband/IPTV .
About UTStarcom, Inc.
UTStarcom is a global leader in IP-based, end-to-end networking solutions and international service and support. The company sells its broadband, wireless, and handset solutions to operators in both emerging and established telecommunications markets around the world. UTStarcom enables its customers to rapidly deploy revenue-generating access services using their existing infrastructure, while providing a migration path to cost-efficient, end-to-end IP networks. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Alameda, California, the company has research and design operations in the United States, Canada, China, Korea and India. UTStarcom is a FORTUNE 1000 company.
For more information about UTStarcom, visit the company's Web site at http://www.utstar.com/.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release includes forward-looking statements by or about UTStarcom, including the foregoing statements regarding the anticipated delivery mechanism, features and other benefits to the users, scope of coverage, and pricing of the IPTV service to be deployed in India, the expectations regarding the benefits of the RollingStream solution to MTNL and other service providers generally, and the anticipated impact of the IPTV service on the viewing experience of the end-users. These statements are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. These risk factors include rapidly changing technology, the changing nature of global telecommunications markets, the termination of contracts and/or strategic relationships, the direction and results of future research and development efforts, evolving product and applications standards, reduction or delays in system deployments, product transitions, potential non-realization of backlog, changes in demand for and acceptance of UTStarcom's products, both in India and globally, general adverse economic conditions, and trends and uncertainties such as changes in government regulation and licensing requirements, both in India and globally. UTStarcom also refers readers to the risk factors identified in its latest Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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