Minerva Networks announced that in the first quarter of 2005 seven new independent telephone companies serving more than 20 communities in the U.S. have selected its IPTV platform to deliver television services to their subscribers. Each of these companies will be able to offer robust video services, including live TV, pay-per-view (PPV), video-on-demand (VOD), subscription video-on-demand (SVOD), personal video recorder (PVR), and caller-ID.

"Competitive pressures forced us to move earlier than we had intended," states Roger Hermsen, President and General Manager of Bayland Telephone. "A national cable supplier started offering voice services in our area. We had to respond. I was surprised at how quickly we were able to get Minerva's system up and running. Minerva has been very responsive."

"Our record quarter is in line with the rapid growth in IPTV deployments we expect to see in 2005," says Mauro Bonomi, Minerva's CEO. "IOCs want a proven solution that enables them to compete effectively against alternative providers. Minerva has a complete software and systems platform that addresses the special needs of the regional telephone companies and offers the professional services and customer support necessary to ensure a successful deployment."

The Minerva iTVManager software consists of a robust set of IPTV back-office management tools and set-top box client applications that consistently win side-by-side user tests against competing platforms. Minerva has optimized its middleware client software to deliver an excellent user experience even when running on the most cost-effective set-top boxes. Minerva's family of carrier-class hardware encoders and transraters deliver outstanding video quality thanks to their superior VLSI compression engines and proprietary pre-processing algorithms.