(2 July 2005 2:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Belgium telecommunications company Belgacom has announced the commercial launch of BelgacomTV, its offer for television over the Internet Protocol (IP) via ADSL phone line. Siemens has provided the end-to-end solution, based on the Surpass Home Entertainment concept.

The offer includes all major TV stations, a pay-per-view system and video-on-demand. Subscribers will also be able to watch the Belgian Soccer Championship, as Belgacom acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights for this competition. Later this year, BelgacomTV will also offer surfing, PVC (Personal Video Recording) and interactive services.

Belgacom chose Siemens as partner to develop a solution for interactive digital Television IN MID-2004. Siemens provided Belgacom with an end-to-end solution for its IP television: from the video streamer which digitizes the offering at source, to the services offered and to the set-top boxes that let television sets receive digital signals. Siemens also provided software to encode the video streams and sends them to a central point at a lower speed, but at high quality.

For Siemens, the IP television partnership with Belgacom is of strategic importance. Head of Fixed Networks at Siemens Communications Christian Unterberger has stated in an official release, "This partnership not only reinforces our reputation as an innovative and service-driven partner for IP TV. It also demonstrates our strength when it comes to integrating a variety of partial solutions to produce a customized end-to-end solution."