Corvette Telecom and its subsidiary, City TV, have selected the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS) to provide digital video content security throughout their new IPTV network. Corvette telecom is launching the IPTV and Video-on-Demand services under the City TV brand name in 2007 to meet growing demand for sophisticated entertainment options.

Corvette is building last mile fibre networks in Moscow, offering customers broadband Internet connectivity at up to 100 mb/s and is expected to reach more than 600,000 homes by the end of 2007.

Kasenna is working with Business Computer Center (BCC), a System Integrator based in St. Petersburg, Russia, to implement an IPTV solution for Russia's Southern Telecom Company (UTK), the principal fixed-line telecommunications provider for Russia's Southern Federal District.

This is the first major deployment of its kind in Russia utilizing part of Kasenna's PortalTV solution -- Mediabase Video on Demand (VOD) server platform, 40 Network PVR (NVPR) channels with pause live TV, and vFusion, its content delivery and management tool. The combined solution will provide an integrated network and IPTV infrastructure for UTK.

Alcatel-Lucent has been selected by JSC Mostelecom, the largest Russian cable television operator with more than three million subscribers and 90 percent of the market, to deploy a new IP-based network that will enable the operator to introduce triple play and business services across the city of Moscow and extend its subscriber reach. The project will be implemented in several stages with the first phase scheduled for launch in the first quarter 2007.

UTStarcom, Inc. announced a three-year contract through its partnership with AKSH Optifibre Ltd. to deploy its RollingStream end-to-end IPTV solution with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) in India. The contract represents the first commercial IPTV deployment in India and AKSH Optifibre Ltd. is the first company to launch IPTV in India. AKSH is the pioneer in optifibre fiber and cable technologies and their main product is a Fiber-to-the-Home solution.

ZDNet Asia reports the progress made by the Beijing Organizing Committee and IT services vendor Atos Origin in preparing for the 2008 Olympics. The two organizations will be using several new technologies for their IT systems including open source and RFID technology. However, the Beijing organizing committee clearly stated that Mobile TV and IPTV will be left off the list of technologies used due to the lack of national standards in China.

Following Light Reading's story on Alcatel-Lucent's IPTV strategy (See Alcatel-Lucent Unveils IPTV Strategy), Alcatel-Lucent today confirms it will actively evolve MiViewTV capabilities as a key component of its next generation of converged entertainment platforms.

Alcatel-Lucent values its relationship with Telefonica, one of the leaders in the new multimedia segment. Alcatel-Lucent supports and will continue growing the capabilities of the Imagenio service to meet the increasing demands from their end users.

NewMarket Technology, Inc. will introduce its Moviii IPTV service April 14-19 at the National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. NewMarket was selected as a distributor for Moviii.com in the United States. NewMarket plans to develop additional content partnerships to extend the digital IPTV service beyond an initial Chinese language content launch.

Moviii.com has over 600 classic Chinese movies and 6000 television series episodes as well as 4500 music videos, and 300 cartoons.

Pulvermedia's 11th annual Spring VON Conference & Expo will take place on March 19-22, at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. This year, Pulvermedia's flagship event will feature a record number of attendees, exhibitors, and speakers, while also playing host to the Video on the Net event -- which runs parallel to VON, in the adjacent Marriott Hotel at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.

Prominent themes for this year's VON event include: Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC); IMS; IPTV; Wi-Fi & WiMAX; and rich media for mobile environments.