Microsoft Corp. signed a major deal to supply Deutsche Telekom AG with its “Microsoft TV IPTV Edition” software.
The German telephone company plans to deliver IPTV services over its VDSL (video-digital-subscriber-line) network, which will be capable of transmission speeds of 50 megabits per second. DT plans to launch the service in 10 major German cities this summer, including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne.
The company plans to provide consumers standard and HD channels, interactive TV, video-on-demand and digital-video-recorder capabilities.
Although some telcos have suffered delays with getting Microsoft software to work, DT executives appeared confident. “In recent months, the experts at T-Online have run the Microsoft TV platform through extensive tests, and we are convinced that we will be able to offer excellent quality IPTV services that will expand as we need them to,” chairman Kai-Uwe Ricke said.
Microsoft said the DT agreement is its largest European IPTV deal and its second-largest worldwide.
