Belgacom Credits Nokia Siemens Platform, Advanced Services for Success of its IPTV Offering

Belgian incumbent telco, Belgacom, announced Thursday that its IPTV service, Belgacom TV, has added 250,000 new customers since January, 2008, representing an increase of 45% over 2007. The company--which claims that the service has captured a 30% share of Belgium's digital TV market in the four years since its launch--attributes its success to the end-to-end IPTV platform from Nokia Siemens Networks that powers it, and that allows it to offer interactive TV, HDTV, video-on-demand, PVR and other advanced services. The system is based on middleware that was originally developed by Myrio, the independent IPTV technology provider that was acquired by Siemens back in 2005. "Nokia Siemens Networks has been our partner since we launched IPTV services, providing us with a resilient, scalable, and fully integrated end-to-end solution that enables us to offer the services we need to effectively compete in the Belgian market," Scott Alcott, Belgacom's EVP of service delivery engines, said in a prepared statement. "In March 2009, the total number of Belgacom TV users reached 555,000 and Nokia Siemens Networks' integrated solution helped us to increase our average revenue per user by 7%, compared to 2007."

The Nokia Siemens Networks IPTV platform is billed as providing an intuitive user interface with advanced features, and as providing scalability in an operationally efficient manner that minimizes strain on network infrastructure and lowers operating costs. In addition to this base client platform, Belgacom uses a Nokia Siemens technology called Infopages, that it says allows it to create various "Web-like" interactive applications, including an easy-access VOD catalog, tcommerce services and instant voting. It also uses Nokia Siemens' software maintenance services. The CPE component of Belgacom's IPTV offering, meanwhile, is comprised of Cisco HD set-tops with integrated PVR capabilities.