UTStarcom believes these factors provide a solid foundation for the IPTV market in both Shanghai and China.
“We believe the opportunity to deploy a commercial IPTV network with China Telecom for a large number of additional subscribers in Shanghai will lay a solid foundation for UTStarcom’s future market development of IPTV in China.
said Ying Wu, chairman and CEO of UTStarcom China.
We believe that RollingStream is the best-in-class IPTV solution in the market. It is a mature, IP-based platform that is designed to provide carrier-class, end-to-end triple-play services to carriers worldwide.
Prior to this deployment, China Telecom Shanghai selected UTStarcom to deploy an initial 5,000-user IPTV network in November 2005. During the first stage of deployment, UTStarcom’s RollingStream solution was put through a rigorous series of technology tests. The outstanding performance of the RollingStream platform, in terms of system reliability, stability, and feature enrichments, led the company to choose UTStarcom as the leading equipment supplier for IPTV service in Shanghai.
Partnering with Shanghai Media Group (SMG), a leading multimedia television content provider, China Telecom Shanghai plans to offer subscribers a service package of live broadcast television and videos-on-demand. Additionally, the service is designed to offer subscribers “time-shift” capabilities — the ability to pause and rewind live television, as well as an expansive amount of storage to record any program and watch on each subscriber’s own schedule. Shanghai is the largest city of China with a total population of approximately 18 million. The number of broadband users in Shanghai approached two million at the end of first quarter of 2006. UTStarcom believes these factors provide a solid foundation for the addressable market of IPTV in China.