ZTE Corporation, a publicly-listed global provider of telecommunications equipment, network solutions and mobile devices, is pleased to provide its market-leading IPTV solution to Mobitel (Mtel), and offer consumers in Bulgaria a ubiquitous television viewing experience.
Mtel’s IPTV platform, powered by ZTE technology, is now in commercial use delivering television services to TVs, PCs, tablets and mobile phones across Bulgaria. The multi-screen service provides a superior interactive video experience to users over fixed or mobile broadband connections, enabling Mtel to deliver significantly greater value to broadband subscribers.
Mtel is the biggest mobile operator in Bulgaria, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telekom Austria Group (TAG). Mtel jointly constructed an IPTV pilot with ZTE in September 2011 and signed a five-year cooperation agreement in December of the same year for ZTE to provide customised end-to-end solutions for IPTV middleware, digital rights management (DRM), a content delivery network (CDN) and set top boxes. The scale of the network was expanded over several phases.
The multi-screen integrated IPTV service, developed after research of Bulgarian user behavior, enables subscribers to watch videos anytime and anywhere such as in the study, in the office or on the way to work, not just in the front of the TV. The commercial use of the platform will help Mtel attract more customers.
Users can access the network through a range of terminals to enjoy live TV, video-on-demand, reserved recorded video, OTT applications and other new IPTV/OTT services. ZTE has extensive experience around the world with mature commercial IPTV systems, and is well placed to assist Mtel in developing broadband users, improving user experiences and providing ‘any multimedia service at anytime, over any network to any terminal’.
“Mtel is a major operator in its region and this is a critical network for ZTE,” said Chen Xinyu, General Manager of ZTE’s VAS Product Line. “Constructing the IPTV multi-screen integration platform to provide Mtel’s users with abundant innovative services is a litmus test for ZTE with regard to product quality, innovation capability and project delivery. We believe that the successful commercial use of the multi-screen service will further consolidate the cooperation between ZTE and Mtel in the multimedia field, and we look forward to the opportunity to provide IPTV/OTT multimedia services for Mtel’s fixed and 4G network to help them improve their user experience and create more value for the company.”
In recent years ZTE has been an important player in opening up the global IPTV market. The ZTE IPTV system has been put into commercial use in many markets in Asia, the USA and Europe. In 2012 ZTE solely constructed the biggest H.264 IPTV network in the world with over 4 million online users. With a highly customisable solution and the ability to rapidly install networks, ZTE provides the ideal IPTV integrated video communication platform. As of Q4 2012, the total user capacity of ZTE’s IPTV systems in the world had exceeded 20 million. In 2012, according to the IPTV Market Leaders Report published by Multimedia Research Group (MRG), ZTE is ranked second in the global IPTV middleware business with an 11 percent market share.