Alcatel, Acer to deploy major IPTV services for Chunghwa Telecom

August 11, 2004 - Alcatel announced it has won a contract from Taiwan's incumbent Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) with Acer and Ambit (recently merged with Foxconn) to deploy IPTV services. The 4.75 million Euro contract marks one of the largest commercial IPTV deployment projects in the APAC region to date. The IP-based television services will use Alcatel's Open Media Suite of solutions to help enrich CHT's recently launched services.

The winning solution includes Alcatel's IPTV Open Media Platform and Open Video Server, and server and cutting-edge STB (set top box) hardware technologies from Acer and Ambit.

Chunghwa Telecom operates domestic and international telecom services in Taiwan. With approximately three million ADSL subscribers, the company is ideally positioned to offer IP-based services such as Video-On-Demand, Karaoke-on-Demand, and an Electronic Program Guide for broadcast TV. As the fastest growing IPTV service provider in Taiwan, Chunghwa Telecom currently has 30,000 IPTV subscribers. With the deployment of Alcatel's Open Media Suite consisting of the 5950 Open Media Platform and 5959 Open Video Server, Chunghwa Telecom projects continued growth and anticipates having approximately 100,000 subscribers in the first year and one million subscribers within three years.

The Alcatel 5950 Open Media Platform, through its comprehensive customization and integration capabilities enabled by the platform's software development kit, gives Chunghwa Telecom the flexibility to meet unique local application requirements. Furthermore, its openness and flexibility enable seamless integration with their preferred set-top box vendor. Alcatel's Open Media Suite delivers not only a software platform for IPTV, but also an end to end solution that is fully integrated with the customer's network.