In only a few months time, On Telecoms has completed the initial phase of a fully owned metropolitan fibre network in Attica of more than 170km. Thanks to this network, On Telcoms will start offering triple play services for 40% of households and businesses and will reach 80% by March 2007.

On Telecoms' "All-in-One" triple play package will offer the services:

• telephony: one telephone line which comes with unlimited local, national and most popular international call duration (15 countries, inc. USA, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy etc.)
• fast broadband: up to 10 Mbps with wireless connection (10 times faster compared to most common ADSL connection today used in the market)
• video: a real innovative service which enhances the way customers use their TV, including access to channels in digital quality. On Telecoms provides a new TV experience, deciding when and what to watch. The on demand service allows customers to choose among a selection of over 1000 titles ranging from recent to classical movies. The package also includes the VideoBox, On Telecoms' High Definition and Dolby Digital-ready set-top box. Through our technology customers will soon be able to subscribe to NOVA IPTV without the need of a dish or additional installation.

Jazztel has launched its video-on-demand (VOD) service, Videoclub, across Spain using Kasenna's PortalTV product suite. The project, which encompasses more that 50 of Kasenna's video servers, has been hailed as one of the broadest rollouts of IPTV-based VOD services in the world today.

The Videoclub service gives Jazztel customers access to a range of video content -- including movies, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Jazztel's nationwide Videoclub service is built on the foundation provided by Kasenna's MediaBase Video Server platform, employed by Jazztel to deliver H.264 video streaming right across Spain, and by vFusion, Kasenna's content distribution software that allows Jazztel to optimize storage between a centralized server and streaming edge servers.

Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA, an Italian telecommunications operator, plans to launch IPTV in the next few weeks as it finalizes content agreements, said Wind chief executive Paolo Dal Pino in an interview with La Repubblica. Read more

Norwegian IPTV operator Comvie, a privately owned company, has selected Dreampark as IPTV middleware provider. Comvie, which is a relatively new IPTV operator in the Norwegian IPTV market, aims to be one of the leading providers of two-way multimedia services in Norway.

Comvie has chosen to work with Dreampark and its DreamgalleryT IPTV Middleware. The product, DreamgalleryT, includes interactive services, Video On Demand, non-linear TV, and Network PVR services.

Telecommunications Magazine reported that Deutsche Telekom is backing away from VDSL2 for their IPTV rollout and will instead move forward using ADSL2+. The motivating factors appear to be cost savings and a possible challenge to regulatory protection for unbundling and wholesaling their VDSL2 service by the EU.

"The move to ADSL2+ has been speculated for some time," says a spokesperson for Commerzbank, based in Germany. "Deutsche Telekom has more pressing capex priorities, such as building out a next-generation IP network to reduce operational expenditure."

Reuters is reporting that Italy-based Tiscali is aiming for 500,000 UK customers to take up their revamped HomeChoice IPTV service over the next two years. The company will start offering the service to customers in major cities.

Neal McCleave, managing director of media services, told Reuters, "It's (roll out) going to be progressive throughout the year. We will extend it to a wider base by the end of the first quarter, and then we will have a reasonable coverage by the end of the year."

Read the full article.

Dolby Laboratories, Inc. announced that T-Home, the new IPTV service from Deutsche Telekom's T-Com division, will be broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. The set-top box for the service, the Media Receiver X 300T, is also compatible with Dolby Digital Plus.

T-Com customers in Germany subscribing to the new T-Home service will have access to over 125 free and pay-TV channels and an extensive choice of entertainment delivered in Dolby Digital, including Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound when available. In addition, customers will enjoy high-speed Internet access.

Free (Iliad Group), an IPTV service provider in France, is to roll out the first and largest optical fiber network in France based on the Cisco Internet Protocol Next Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture and using Cisco Ethernet fiber-to-the-home (E-FTTH) technology.

According to Free's plan, the first phase of the fiber project will connect more than 2 million people in the city of Paris via the largest fiber network in Europe. Free announced that residents will have access to broadband speeds that could exceed 50 megabits per second for 29.99 euros per month, and benefit from advanced services such as high-definition IPTV, video on demand, multimedia communication and Web 2.0 services.

The Netherlands have become the first nation to switch completely from analog to digital television signals.

The switch happened last night around midnight but only affected around 74,000 households, according to the Associated Press. The majority of the Netherlands, a country with a population of 16 million, already has cable, satellite, digital terrestrial, or IPTV.

KPN and Tele2 are both IPTV providers in the Netherlands.

Moscow-based broadband provider Corvette Telecom is launching a new IPTV service that is built on open technology and content services from SeaChange International, Inc. and its subsidiary On Demand Group, Ltd. Corvette's rollout demonstrates how operators can easily develop and deliver a complete television package with the modular software, hardware and services of the SeaChange TV Platform, while enjoying the performance of a single, full-service partner with extensive IPTV experience.

BT launched its next generation television service, BT Vision. This service puts the viewer in control by combining the appeal of TV with the interactivity of broadband. Customers will be able to watch what they want when they want and not be tied to TV schedules. The service does not require a regular monthly subscription.

Latens Systems has been awarded a contract to provide Latens Foundation CAS (FCAS) Content & Revenue Security to Salten Bredband, the Norwegian IPTV operator.

FCAS will protect the Salten Bredband IPTV service, which presently includes 35 IPTV channels and Video on Demand and Program on Demand content services.

Belgacom, Belgium's biggest telco operator, has topped the 100,000 mark for its interactive, digital IPTV offering faster than expected. Instead of the end of the year, as originally anticipated, the Belgian operator reached exactly 102,971 subscribers for its IPTV offering back at the end of September 2006. The solution is based on Surpass Home Entertainment from Siemens, a turnkey end-to-end solution for IPTV that is brought into Belgian households via the ADSL telephone line.

Orca Interactive's IPTV middleware – RiGHTv has been deployed for the first IPTV service in Portugal by Clix, the mass market brand of Sonaecom, a major telecommunications provider.

Clix SmarTV will offer live broadcast television and radio channels, an electronic programming guide (EPG), video on demand (VOD) and subscription video on demand (SVOD). The service has been successfully deployed in the cities of Lisbon and Porto.

A spokesman for BT has stated the company will launch its IPTV service, BT Vision, next Monday at an event in London. According to the source, BT will wait until next Spring to begin a large promotion of their new service.

Customers will be required to buy a BT-branded Philips set-top box but will not need to pay a monthly subscription for the service. Instead, the company will look towards pay-per-view videos for revenue.

Read more at Forbes and C21Media.