(1 July 2009 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: UTStarcom has been named as the leading Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) provider in Asia in Multimedia Research Group's (MRG) latest Global IPTV Market Leaders Report.

The in-depth analysis tracks the top 100 IPTV vendors in 24 regional sub-segments. UTStarcom's strategic IPTV deployments and strong subscriber gains drove the company's rise to the top in the Access, Video-on-Demand (VOD), Set-top-Boxes, Middleware and Content Protection categories.

MRG IPTV analyst Jose Alvear says, "UTStarcom's Asia deployments have moved it into the first place ranking in five key areas of our Market Leaders Report. This kind of regional category takeover is unprecedented and illustrates how IPTV providers are successfully applying their market-specific technology innovation and experience."

UTStarcom adds that it pioneered IPTV in China when it introduced its RollingStream end-to-end IPTV system in 2005. As of March last, UTStarcom's RollingStream supported more than 1.32 million live IPTV subscribers globally.

Last year, UTStarcom partnered with Guangxi Telecom, a wholly owned subsidiary of China Telecom to deploy the first IPTV-based digital signage solution in 14 Guangxi cities. UTStarcom was also among the first to deliver the Olympic Games via IPTV to China viewers during summer 2008. This April, the company was selected as the only technology supplier for the first mobile television system across Hainan province, driven by China Telecom's Hainan branch.

In India the company partnered with Aksh Optifibre in 2007 to deliver the first commercial IPTV service in Delhi through MTNL. With UTStarcom's continued partnership, Aksh set an agreement with BSNL to offer its iControl IPTV service in 20 cities across India and additionally in Mumbai with MTNL.

UTStarcom also has a long-standing relationship with Bharti Airtel in Delhi NCR. Additionally, UTStarcom's RollingStream platform is being used by Sri Lanka Telecom to deliver IPTV services in Colombo, Sri Lanka.