SingTel announces first-in-the-world landmark deal with major US studios

 

Singapore, 23 July 2008 – Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) has announced that it has signed a groundbreaking deal with three major studios – Disney-ABC International Television, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. International Television Distribution – that will make it possible for its mio TV service to screen over 50 top US series as early as 24 hoursafter their US premiere.

SingTel’s mio TV will be the first IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) operator in the world to offer such a volume of top US series within a day of their US telecast on a subscription-based model, and this will provide the first exhibition of such licensed series in Singapore.

This service, called Season Pass, will launch this September and the availability of programming will follow the US TV calendar.  mio TV will offer the latest seasons of popular American TV series debuting in US from September this year such as Grey’s Anatomy, Lost, Criminal Minds,Prison Break, Bones, 24, Ugly Betty, Without a Trace, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,Supernatural, Samantha Who? and many more.

Local Connectivity – A Major Value Proposition for South East Asia

 

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 23 July 2008 – ‘Deploying strong value propositions in each south east Asian country’ is one of the key messages behind this year’s SE AsiaCom in Kuala Lumpur. Leading wireless application solution provider, Altobridge, had one of the strongest value propositions for operators throughout the region – its Local Connectivity solution combined with its Split-BSC Architecture.

Altobridge is currently working in partnership with operators Maxis, in Malaysia, and MobiCom, in Mongolia, to deliver cost-effective rural communications to isolated public and enterprise communities. The Local Connectivity solution and the Split-BSC Architecture offer operators two outstanding opportunities:

• to remove unnecessary transmission costs incurred when local calls are backhauled, by keeping local calls local; 
• to restrict the use of expensive satellite bandwidth, only using it ‘On-Demand’ instead of ‘Always-On’, freeing up vital capacity.

ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 aims at the younger generation

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Geneva, 07 July 2008 — ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008, the regional ICT showcase, is set for Bangkok, Thailand from 2 to 5 September. The first such event to be hosted by Thailand, Asia 2008 will promote information and communication technologies (ICT) both globally and within the Asia-Pacific region.

“New Generation, New Values” the theme for ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 sets the stage for both the Exhibition and the Forum. The Exhibition showcases a comprehensive range of ICT-related products and services, reflecting the ever extending reach of industry. Parallel to individual stands, a number of initiatives are underway to showcase national competitive advantages. Pavilions registered thus far include: China, France, Japan, Korea, Russia, Thailand and USA. ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008 will be held at the modern IMPACT Challenger Centre in Bangkok. As ASIA 2008 coincides with the dates for Bangkok International ICT Expo that has been organized for the last four years by Thailand’s Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), the entire central hall of the IMPACT Challenger venue is dedicated to showcasing the ICT industry in Thailand.

ITU responds to industry call to accelerate work on cleaner and greener environment

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Geneva, 11 July 2008 - Responding to an industry call, ITU has set up a new group to work on standards related to the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on climate change. The new group will focus in particular on the reduction of ICT emissions and how ICTs can assist in cutting emissions in other industry sectors such as energy, transportation and buildings.

Since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, in December 1997, the number of ICT users has tripled worldwide. It is estimated that the ICT sector produces between two to three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But ICTs are also seen as a part of the solution to the climate change challenge.

IPTV deployments double for the second year running as Broadband continues to achieve strong growth

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Hong Kong, 14 July 2008 - The Broadband Forum, formerly the DSL Forum, has announced the latest Broadband and IPTV statistics at this year’s Broadband World Forum Asia in Hong Kong.  The report, prepared for the Broadband Forum by industry analysts Point Topic, shows that IPTV subscribers have more than doubled for the second year running with an increase of 53.14 percent in the 12 months to 31 March 2008. 

 

The statistics also show that worldwide broadband subscribers have reached over 370 million with DSL remaining the most dominant access technology with 65 percent of the world’s subscribers.  However, fiber subscriptions have risen by 33 percent since the beginning of 2007, with over 10 million people connected to a fiber network.  This increase in fiber subscriptions may be attributed to the increased popularity of bandwidth hungry services such as IPTV.  However, the leading technology delivering IPTV today is ADSL2plus, with 12,049,817 subscribers.