Nortel is teaming up with Broadstream Communications, the industry leader in IPTV content transport and management services, to provide a complete end-to-end IPTV solution that now includes both video infrastructure and television programming.

The addition of Broadstream to Nortel's IPTV ecosystem brings over 200 channels of IPTV-ready video content that can be transmitted directly to any service provider location in the United States. Nortel's IPTV solution enables service providers to deliver a unique video service over an IP infrastructure that includes features such as on-screen instant messaging, mobile-to-TV picture sharing, and on-screen caller ID.

"As rural telcos look to offer their customers new IPTV services, a significant hurdle they face is access to a complete media and entertainment content bundle that can effectively compete with today's existing cable and satellite services," said Walt Megura, general manager, Broadband Networks Solutions, Nortel. "By teaming up with Broadstream to leverage their expertise in managed content services, Nortel can offer rural telcos a turnkey IPTV solution that helps enable more rapid and cost-effective introduction of these new revenue-generating services."

Broadstream plays an important part in Nortel's IPTV end-to-end solution by greatly reducing the complexity of acquiring content and by providing significant cost savings to telco providers. Broadstream provides TV channels that are pre-packaged in an IPTV-ready format by pre-encoding them into high quality MPEG-4 and delivering them via a single satellite to the telco video head-end. This process eliminates the telco's need for costly encoders and expensive satellite receivers. Nortel then interconnects the content into their IPTV solution to create a complete, highly competitive IPTV service for the telco's regional market.

"By eliminating the telco's need to build out its own video head-end to consolidate and convert media content into an IPTV-ready state, Broadstream can help telcos of any size significantly reduce the high cost of providing a new IPTV service," said Pete Bryant, vice president business development, Broadstream. "Our work with Nortel provides telcos with a complete end-to-end path for IPTV content from the media source down to the set-top box."

Nortel brings to the market a comprehensive IPTV solution that is pre-integrated and pre-tested to help ensure early deployments of IPTV are reliable, scaleable, and secure. Nortel supports its IPTV solutions beyond the initial deployment phase by providing lifecycle management to protect customer investments and help ensure the system remains operational as video upgrades occur over time.

Nortel's IPTV solution with Broadstream will be on display as part of the Nortel Rural Market Tour traveling across North America this fall. The Nortel Next Generation Networking (NGN) Rural Market Tour 2006 is a one-day educational seminar with live solutions demonstrations on NetworksXpress, Nortel's uniquely configured mobile demonstration center displaying the latest in Nortel products and solutions designed to deliver cost reduction, increased productivity, and innovation. Nortel's end-to-end IPTV solution, including bundled video services from Broadstream, will be a part of the educational seminars.