Thursday, 25 May 2006

Alcatel, Microsoft Pitch in IBM, HP to Drive Internet TV Development

Alcatel and Microsoft have announced a global deal with IBM and HP in an effort to push the development of Internet Protocol TV (IPTV). The IT firms will provide servers and storage capabilities designed for broad-based Internet TV deployments.

The firms said the agreement will deliver advanced servers to carriers offering "triple play" to customers. Triple play is the provision of voice, video and data that will essentially allow on-demand TV in the home.

The alliance will also establish establish joint global go-to-market efforts that will include sales and marketing activities. Alcatel will include specific bundled server solutions built with HP ProLiant and pre-integrated HP OpenView IT element management software in its end-to-end triple play offering.

"Today's announcement demonstrates the growing momentum of the IPTV industry," said Christine Heckart, general manager of marketing for the Microsoft TV Division.

"By working with these industry-leading companies we can continue to strengthen the Microsoft IPTV Edition platform while enabling service providers to cost-effectively deliver exciting new TV experiences for consumers," added Heckart.