Sri Lanka Following India's Footsteps?

Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is the buzz in the broadcast industry.
After DTH, it is the new rage, and countries like India and Sri Lanka are
looking forward to it. It has been almost two years since India has launched
IPTV. Recently, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the country's largest access provider,
launched its IPTV services with a target to reach the service to 7,000 customers
by the end of the year. UTStarcom has selected Israeli-based company Optibase to
provide video encoders as a part of end-to-end IPTV solution.

UTStarcom deals in IP-based end-to-end solutions and international services
and support. It enables its customers to rapidly deploy revenue generating
access services using their existing infrastructure, while providing a migration
path to cost efficient, end-to-end IP networks. It also has its research design
operations in countries like the United States, Canada, China, Korea and India.

In India there are quite a few IPTV service providers like Aksh, Bharti
Airtel and MTNL. UTStarcom is working with Gurgaon-based Aksh Optifibre to
expand the operator's Rolling Stream IPTV solution. The Rolling Stream IPTV
system supports more than 8,50,500 live IPTV subscribers across the world. It
can be widely acknowledged that the IPTV business is growing as Israeli company
Optibase is ready to provide the encoders.

SLT's selection of UTStarcom's integrated solution, based on Optibase
Encoders, to deliver the country's first IPTV service proves the future of
Optibase's strong position as a player in the emerging Asian IPTV markets.
Optibase will be using the H.264 Media Gateway (MGW) 5100 encoding platforms so
that highly reliable streaming solutions can be offered to customers.

Optibase provides professional encoding, decoding, video server upload and
streaming solutions for telecom operators, service providers, broadcasters and
content creators. Optibase offers a huge range of products from offerings that
are used in applications, such as video over DSL or fiber networks, post
production for the broadcast and cables industries, archiving; high-end
surveillance, distance learning; and business television.

SLT is basically a tier-1 wireline and incumbent operator which provides
international and domestic voice, Internet, and data services. The company
invested approximately $1 mn for the initial launch of its IPTV service. The
telco already has a wireline subscriber base of over 1.3 mn customers in Sri
Lanka. With IPTV, it will be on stronger grounds. Unlike India where DTH is more
popular, IPTV is becoming more popular in the island.

Whatever it may be, in India also the technology of streaming is being used
and the provider continues to be the same. In India the Optibase's H.264 would
be used by Bharti Airtel. The path treaded by both Sri Lanka and India for the
new IPTV is almost the same, not only the companies but also the technology
used. This makes it difficult to understand who is setting the benchmark.

Sunny Sen

sunnys@cybermedia.co.in