Paris, August 11, 2004 - Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced it has won a contract from Taiwan's incumbent Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) with Acer and Ambit (recently merged with Foxconn) to deploy IPTV services. The 4.75 million Euro contract marks one of the largest commercial IPTV deployment projects in the APAC region to date. The IP-based television services will use Alcatel's Open Media Suite of solutions to help enrich CHT's recently launched services.
The winning solution includes Alcatel's IPTV Open Media Platform and Open Video Server, and server and cutting-edge STB (set top box) hardware technologies from Acer and Ambit.
The large scale of the IPTV services contract demonstrates CHT's commitment to making its Multimedia-on-demand (MOD) a success. MOD services in Taiwan face regulatory issues among other market realities, such as multilateral negotiations to resolve copyrights and payment mechanisms, before the core concern of digital content and its distribution can be managed. Chunghwa Telecom therefore recognizes Alcatel's IPTV solution as being a powerful tool to address the situation, while paving the way toward subscriber growth.
Chunghwa Telecom operates domestic and international telecom services in Taiwan. With approximately three million ADSL subscribers, the company is ideally positioned to offer IP-based services such as Video-On-Demand, Karaoke-on-Demand, and an Electronic Program Guide for broadcast TV. As the fastest growing IPTV service provider in Taiwan, Chunghwa Telecom currently has 30,000 IPTV subscribers. With the deployment of Alcatel's Open Media Suite consisting of the 5950 Open Media Platform and 5959 Open Video Server, Chunghwa Telecom projects continued growth and anticipates having approximately 100,000 subscribers in the first year and one million subscribers within three years.
The Alcatel 5950 Open Media Platform, through its comprehensive customization and integration capabilities enabled by the platform's software development kit, gives Chunghwa Telecom the flexibility to meet unique local application requirements. Furthermore, its openness and flexibility enable seamless integration with their preferred set-top box vendor. Alcatel's Open Media Suite delivers not only a software platform for IPTV, but also an end to end solution that is fully integrated with the customer's network.
"With Alcatel's Open Media Suite of software products we will have the ability to strengthen our leadership position in the telecom industry in Taiwan," said Chian-chin Yen, Managing Director of Multimedia Department, Chunghwa Telecom. "Deploying IPTV services for our customers with an end user experience that is exactly tuned to the local media culture gives us the unique advantage we need to stay ahead of the competition. Alcatel's Open Media products also allow us to investigate new and interesting service offerings to retain and grow our customer base."
"Deploying a leading IPTV service requires a set of locally relevant applications on a scaleable and carrier grade industrial platform," said Alan Mottram, President of Alcatel's fixed solutions activities. "With the largest IPTV customer base and a world wide presence, Alcatel provides the end to end IPTV software solution, system integration and services required for a successful broadband IPTV experience."
About Chunghwa Telecom
CHT completed its corporatization on 1 July 1996 under the direction of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications according to the Telecommunication Act and Memorandum of Chunghwa Telecom Corporation. Incorporated with a registered capital at NT$96.477 billion, CHT chiefly provides telecommunication and information-related services. Its scope of services covers city call, long-distance calls, international calls, GSM, data communication, Internet services, broadband networking, satellite communication, intelligent network, mobile data and multimedia broadband. As the most experienced and largest integrated telecommunication operator in Taiwan, CHT is one of the most important partners for international telecommunication cooperation, with distinctive achievements in promoting global real-time communication, improvement social life, and enhancing economic efficiency.
About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or to their employees. Alcatel leverages its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services to bring value to its customers in the framework of a broadband world. With sales of EURO 12.5 billion in 2003, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.
About Alcatel's Open Media Suite
The Alcatel Open Media Suite is an end-to-end portfolio of products and professional services. The portfolio encompasses user interface customization, integration with third party equipment such as set top boxes and digital video head ends, as well as the facilitation of negotiations with content owners and suppliers. Products include the 5950 Open Media Platform and Applications and the 5959 Open Media Content Management and Delivery system, including the 5959 Open Video Server. The openness and flexibility of these products as well as the software development kits ensure that customers and third parties can easily develop new applications. The Open Media Suite is designed to allow service providers to fully profit from the investment in their broadband access networks. With its flexible non-proprietary architecture, advances in technology can be adopted quickly, thus increasing network efficiency and overall profitability. | |
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