UTStarcom, Aksh Optifibre & MTNL partner for IPTV

UTStarcom, Inc. (Nasdaq: UTSI), 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 RollingStreamT end-to-end IPTV solution with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) in India. The contract represents the first commercial IPTV deployment in India.

The service, which will utilize MTNL's existing broadband network as the content delivery backbone, will consist of traditional broadcast television, video, 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 and is priced at Rs 125.

"This contract is a testament to both UTStarcom's leadership in the IPTV industry as well as our dominant position as a provider of innovative broadband technologies to the Indian market," said Vijay Yadav, Managing Director, UTStarcom, South Asia. "UTStarcom's IPTV solution is already deployed with leading service providers in China, Japan and India and we hope to bring in a paradigm shift in Indian television viewing through our award winning Rolling StreamT".

MTNL has 1.52 lakh broadband subscribers in Delhi and 1.83 lakh in Mumbai. MTNL will offer this service to its broadband subscribers using its existing broadband network. "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."

According to Kailash Choudhari, Managing Director of Aksh Optifibre, "The cooperation with UTStarcom ideally complements our know-how. 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."