UTStarcom (News - Alert), a manufacturer of Internet Protocol-based end-to-end networking and telecommunications solutions, has signed a contract with Aksh Optifibre to deploy its RollingStream IPTV solution in 20 cities in India on the Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL (News - Alert))'s ADSL 2+ network.

 

BSNL is the telecommunication services provider in India owned by the nation’s government. The ADSL 2+ network is an UTStarcom-built multiplay infrastructure that supports more than seventy five percent of the active wirelines in India.

 

The IPTV (News - Alert) solution which will be made with Aksh's iControl service is aimed at offering interactive entertainment such as time-shifting, video-on-demand (VOD), interactive gaming, live television voting and distance learning programs. Aksh is an optical fiber cable manufacturer in India.

 

"Demand for IPTV in India is increasing exponentially and UTStarcom is supplying Aksh with the solutions and infrastructure it needs to continue that momentum," said Kailash Choudhari, chairman and managing director at Aksh Optifibre, in a statement.

 

The IPTV solution is expected to cover 250,000 BSNL broadband subscribers in 20 cities across India. In August, UTStarcom and Aksh jointly delivered high-quality IPTV services to subscribers of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam in Mumbai, India.

 

"India is moving toward becoming a top IPTV market and companies such as Aksh and BSNL are making inroads to turn those aspirations into reality," said Vijay Yadav, vice president and managing director, South Asia operations, UTStarcom.

 

Yadav also mentioned about RollingStream's unique end-to-end architecture that allows it to be both flexible and long-reaching in scope to support deployments in a small populated town or an entire country or region. Yadav assured that through BSNL's network and UTStarcom technology, Aksh will build an iControl IPTV base that will change the way most of India utilizes television in their daily lives.

 

UTStarcom's RollingStream end-to-end IPTV system currently supports more than 956,000 live IPTV subscribers globally and has a current total system capacity of more than 2.5 million subscribers.