The Hindu Business Line : Nortel plans trial run for IPTV set-top boxes

Nortel Networks, the $10.5 billion Canadian telecom equipment manufacturer, plans to run trials of IPTV (Internet protocol television) set-top boxes (STBs) in India.

It has a joint venture with LG Electronics, and the STBs would be imported from Korea, according to Mr Dhananjay Ganjoo, Vice President, Enterprise Solution, Nortel India.

The company would provide optic fibre and use the services of telecom carriers, including Bharti, Tata, BSNL and Reliance, to run the trials. Nortel had done a similar trial in Spain. IPTV's reach in India is still at a very nascent stage, he told newspersons.

In IPTV, digital television service is delivered using the Internet Protocol over a network infrastructure, including delivery through a broadband connection. IPTV is provided in conjunction with video-on-demand and bundled with Internet services such as Web access and voice-over-Internet protocol.

SMB products

According to the company's Director (SMB), Mr E.R. Ashok Kumar, Nortel will appoint about 1,000 channel partners for SMBs (small and medium business) by March 2007. The company had earlier appointed about 400 channel partners.

The expansion follows the recent launch of Nortel's SMB products and solutions in India. This is the first initiative for SMB by the company in Asia, he said.

Nortel has also started an SMB support call centre in Chennai. The outsourced service has ten employees. Nortel also has 12 "on ground" support engineers to take care of installation and other services for clients. This service is available in 12 cities, he said.

Quoting the research company AMI, Mr Kumar said there are 7.6 million SMBs in the country, and around 20 per cent of these use personal computers. These SMBs employ around 22 million people. Chennai is the largest SMB market in south India with nearly 70,000 units in sectors such as auto ancillary, leather, and information technology and IT-enabled services, he said.

According to AMI, a company with less than 1,000 employees is an SMB while Nortel classifies a company with around 250 users/active ports as an SMB, he said.

Mr Kumar said Nortel offers SMBs an end-to-end for voice, data and converged communication needs, including Ethernet and routers/WLAN (wireless local area network).

Company officials declined to give any financial details.

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