Aus telco looking at IPTV next year
Rose Major ©RapidTVNews | 24-11-2008
Australian telco iiNet may be the first nationwide telco to launch IPTV in Australia, saying it was considering the move for 2009.So far, only Canberra-serving telco TransACT has launched television services on an IP network, with other plans in the past from other telcos having been shelved.
Australia’s broadband networks have been criticised for being too slow, but progress has been made over the last year or so.
iiNet has 200,000 customers on its ADSL2+ network and is continuing to see strong growth, particularly for its Naked DSL service, which provides speeds of up to 24 Mbit per sec. Managing director Michael Malone claimed the company has a national network “providing 90% of metropolitan Australians with access to broadband faster than proposed under the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network.”
Malone continued: “Our attractive new unmetered download content offerings in our Media Lounge, including iTunes, the ABC’s iView, Barclay’s Premier League, golf Majors highlights, NASA TV and more than 60 radio stations, is bringing tangible benefits to our customers which is in turn is delivering the strong customer growth and financial results.
“Our plans to introduce IPTV in 2009 will further cement iiNet as a market leader in product innovation, content collaboration offerings and customer service.”
Pilot testing for the service is already underway, with iiNet planning to offer a box with twin free-to-air tuners with EPG and PVR capabilities. There will be linear channels as well as on-demand content and interactive features.
But there is some irony in the move, as iiNet just last week had a suit filed against it in the Federal Court by seven movie studios plus the Seven Network for failing to stop its customers from downloading content illegally.
iiNet argues that it should only be made to disconnect customers who have been found guilty after due legal process, rather than just disconnecting customers accused by the industry of piracy.
The case is being seen as an important test case for the internet industry in Australia.
© Rapid TV News 2008
