(23 July 2005 4:00 pm)

MUMBAI: European telecom player Telecom Italia has intensified its plans to launch an IPTV service. The company has gone into large-scale trials in four cities with plans of a commercial rollout later this year in 21 Italian markets.

More than four million households will have access to the service via a 4 Mb/s ADSL connection when it becomes commercially available, says media reports.

During the trial phase, IPTV users have a special Set Top Box connected to their TV to access content over an Alice 4 Mega link. Users also have an ADSL Wi-Fi modem to which up to 5 PCs can be connected at any one time. An infra-red keyboard allows users to access the Net and send and receive email directly from their TV.

IPTV trials are being conducted with technology partners Alcatel, Microsoft and Pirelli. Alcatel is supplying technologies including the latest generation of ADSL access devices and its "Open Media Suite" set top box video entertainment TV distribution platform. Microsoft has supplied Telecom Italia with its "Microsoft TV IPTV Edition" software, which the company is using to test and offer a new generation of for-payment video services and content.

The service offers a wide range of TV programming and video content in high-quality format over ADSL access lines. Commercial service is being rolled out this autumn, initially in 21 cities across Italy (Rome, Milan, Bologna, Palermo, Bari, Naples, Padua, Cagliari, Genoa, Florence, Alessandria, Modena, Venice, Verona, Turin, Trieste, Catania, Brescia, Biella, Sondrio and Reggio Emilia).

Telecom Italia's full commercial IPTV service will offer live Serie A TIM and B TIM Italian football, top Italian basketball, a huge video library of 600 films plus 30 new films per month, reality shows and live events on "Alice Live", presented by well-known faces from TV, music, film and science.