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Canadian telecommunications equipment giant, Nortel, last month
launched a new IPTV solution which it claims is designed to make it
simple and inexpensive for its service provider customers to offer video
services, complete with integrated communications capabilities, over
their existing networks. According to the company, the new solution is
already being trialed by a number of tier-one operators around the
world, and is being deployed in the US by Grafton Technologies, a
triple-play provider in Jersey County, Illinois, over the latter’s existing
voice and data network (note: Nortel is providing Grafton with its
Global Services for IPTV package, which includes project
management, engineering, integration, installation, technical support
and assisted operation). “Being able to provide IPTV services blended
with advanced services such as click-to-call, text messaging and picture
sharing, will provide critical advantage for us in the market,” Grafton
Technologies general manager, Mike Arnold, said in a prepared
statement. “With the Nortel IPTV solution, we will be able to use
simple, affordable upgrades to our existing network infrastructure, to
launch a range of new services.” Added Sameer Sheth, general manager
of video solutions at Nortel: “The solution we’ve announced today
directly tackles the issues that our service provider partners face, such
as holding down costs while expanding new services, by creating a
solution that can be added simply to their existing network.”

According to Nortel, the foundation of its new IPTV solution is the
Nortel Video Services Platform (VSP) 9500, which it bills as
facilitating the rapid introduction of new services on a video or IPTV
network, and as having open interfaces that allow applications to be
easily developed and deployed. Those applications could include
interactive advertising, yellow pages with click-to-call functionality,
and social networking tie-ins to TV shows, the company says, and
could be created by Nortel, third-party developers, or the service
providers themselves (”previously, applications were tightly coupled to
the specifics of the network and video infrastructure–applications built
for one network would not run on another network without changing
network components,” Nortel says). Nortel claims that the VSP also
delivers application data across multiple different devices, including
mobile phones, TV’s and computers, by automatically pushing content
to the specific end-user device.

Nortel is also launching its first video application in conjunction with
the VSP 9500: according to the company, the new Communications
Module 9520 offers a complete communications bundle that converges
wireline and mobile phones with desktop functionality, such as IM,
caller-ID, click-to-call, voicemail and address books–all through an
interface on the end-user’s television set.