Belgacom and Nokia extend their IPTV partnership

The two companies are building on a successful partnership that began in 2004 with the supply of Nokia Siemens Networks’ IPTV solution to Belgacom.

Nokia Siemens Networks is also supporting Belgacom’s plan to add high-definition television to its existing portfolio of interactive TV services via IP-based broadband lines.

Belgacom’s is one of the top IPTV providers in the world, with a total customer base for its Belgacom TV of more than 190,000 subscribers at the end of June 2007.

As part of the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks will deliver and integrate set-top boxes for high-definition TV into Belgacom’s network. End-user set-top boxes are an integral part of Nokia Siemens Networks’ end-to-end solution, which uses its own leading middleware including an attractive user interface as well as best-of-breed components for encryption/content protection, content servers and TV head-ends.

Nokia Siemens Networks will deliver high-definition set-top boxes from November and integrate them throughout Belgacom’s IPTV network. The company will also handle software maintenance services.

Maintenance services are a key element of high quality network operations, given the large amount of software used in such networks and their increasing complexity. Set-top boxes bring the user interface to the consumer, and decode standard and high-definition video and TV content. To save access bandwidth, high-definition content is transmitted in the compressed H.264 (MPEG-4) format.

In addition to broadcasting the major TV channels, Belgacom TV includes digital video recording, and video-on-demand with a library of more than 1,400 titles. Premium content, such as pay-per-view for soccer matches, has already proved to be particularly popular.

Nokia Siemens Networks is a market leader in deploying innovative end-to-end IPTV solutions that can be tailored to customers’ needs, with more than 80 IPTV contracts across the world.

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