Nortel is using its industry leadership in SIP-based services and its breadth of solutions across IMS, broadband and VoIP to develop new IPTV services and functionality that can dramatically change the way people use their TVs for both entertainment and communications.

"IPTV is more than simply delivering television services over an IP network," said Walt Megura, general manager, Broadband Networks, Nortel. "The real power of IPTV is in the merging of entertainment and communications, the integration of telephone features into your television experience, and the mobility of video services that follow the user anywhere, anytime."

At its IPTV lab in Ottawa, Nortel is demonstrating the delivery of IPTV services over Nortel's IMS infrastructure, the first step for enabling telcos to create personalized IPTV services across wireline and wireless networks that helps to provide long-term differentiation from competitive offerings. Demonstrated services include mobile-to-TV picture sharing, on-screen instant messaging and presence, and click-to-call functionality.

"IPTV is a key investment area for Nortel, and the integration of IPTV services within an IMS infrastructure is a fundamental part of our IPTV strategy," said Megura. "We are also concentrating our efforts on enabling new IPTV services that take full advantage of our industry-leading SIP capabilities."

At the TelecomNEXT conference in Las Vegas from March 19-23, Nortel is demonstrating some of these advanced SIP-based services that can be offered by service providers as part of a Nortel-enabled IPTV services bundle. Nortel will also be showcasing integrated voice and text communications capabilities built using a new jointly developed Application Interface (API) that enables the integration of real-time IPTV services with Minerva's iTVManager software. Nortel is using this jointly developed interface as a first step to bring together Minerva's IPTV middleware platform with Nortel's IMS solution to make content available to users anywhere, anytime, on any device.

"Nortel is attacking the IPTV market with focus and determination," said Megura. "A key part of that focus is in working with our IPTV ecosystem vendors like Minerva to create new services that can be an integral part of in IPTV bundle."