China Telecom

China Telecom finishes Shanghai upgrade

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:37:19 -0500

China Telecom, which has about 1.51 million IPTV customers in China, has completed an upgrade to the Shanghai portion of its network, on which it offers service in partnership with Shanghai Media Group. IPTV News reports that the upgrade will support a surge toward 900,000 IPTV customers in the area, with the telco particularly focusing on Shanghai, where service adoption has been strong. China Telecom also has a key IPTV development lab there. ZTE, UTStarcom and Huawei Technologies were among key vendors on the upgrade project. The telco also earlier this year lined up orders for up to 574,000 set-top boxes, most of them high-definition STBs.

For more:
- IPTV News has this report

Global IPTV subscriber round-up

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:33:36 -0500

Following our earlier posts on third quarter TV subscriber additions from AT&T, Verizon Communications, Chunghwa Telecom and others, here are the third quarter figures for several more carriers around the globe:

China Telecom added more than 550,000 IPTV subs since May and now has more than 1.5 million total.

France Telecom added 70,000 IPTV customers in France, about 211,000 pay TV users overall in Europe, and now has 1.74 million TV subscribers overall.

TeliaSonera added 23,000 IPTV customers to give it 450,000 subscribers in Scandinavia.

Poland's TPSA added 3,000 IPTV subscribers, giving it more than 57,000 total.

United Arab Emirates firm du reported it has passed 50,000 IPTV subscribers.

These numbers were reported by IPTV News and in third quarter earnings reports. More numbers specific to other international and U.S. carriers will be available later this week.

China Telecom picks vendors for IPTV gear

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:26:18 -0400

China Telecom has chosen its system platform and set-top box manufacturers for IPTV expansions and upgrades by its provincial operating branches. The system platform vendors include ZTE, UTStarcom and Alcatel-Lucent. China Telecom also had envisioned a need for more than 530,000 standard-definition set-top boxes, and its vendors for those now include ZTE, UTStarcom, Coship, Motorola, Huawei, Postcom, Sunniwell, Alcatel-Lucent, Yuxing, 30 Kaitian and Changhong. Suppliers for about 38,000 high-definition set-top boxes include ZTE, UTStarcom, Alcatel-Lucent, Postcom and Changhong.

All of the suppliers are potential vendors from which the provincial branches can make their actual deployment choices. Those provincial units are not allowed to further negotiate pricing. China Telecom has around 1 million IPTV customers, and said a few months ago that it was looking arrange orders for as many as 574,000 set-top boxes.

For more:
- read this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
China Telecom had been closing in on 1 million IPTV subs as of last May. China Telecom report
China Telecom opened an IPTV lab in Shanghai last month. China Telecom report

Olympics stoke interest in Chinese IPTV

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:38:02 -0400

Telcos in China are reporting accelerated IPTV sign-ups just ahead of the beginning the Summer Olympics in Beijing this weekend, according to an IPTV News post citing local news reports. China Telecom reportedly is receiving about 3,000 applications for IPTV services each day, while Shanghai Telecom has also said that it will promote a new picture-in-picture service during the Olympics that will allow viewers to watch more than one event on the same screen. China Telecom recently was nearing 1 million IPTV customers, and Shanghai Telecom currently has 510,000 IPTV customers.

For more:
- see this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
China Telecom said it had 940,000 IPTV customers back in May. China Telecom report
China Telecom recently opened an IPTV lab in Shanghai. China Telecom report

Telco TV players prep for Olympics

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:52:24 -0400

Major telco TV players AT&T and Verizon Communications each have cut deals with NBC to carry the broadcaster's coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing next month. The distribution deals with broadcaster NBC include presentation of live event coverage on IPTV (that's RFTV for Verizon), broadband Internet and mobile device platforms.

Verizon will show NBC's coverage on FiOS TV, and also will roll out two NBC high-definition channels to show basketball and soccer coverage at the games. Verizon also will make highlights, breaking news and results available on its streaming wireless video service. AT&T is the official telecommunications provider for the U.S. Olympics team, and will stream contests live on U-verse TV, and will provide mobile access on the new MediaFLO service called NBC Olympics 2Go.

For more:
- read this post at SportsBusiness.com

Related articles:
China Telecom recently was nearing 1 million IPTV customers. China Telecom report
Sports content was beefed up by both telco TV players last year. Sports content report

China Telecom opens Shanghai IPTV lab

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:25:09 -0400

China Telecom has started an IPTV research laboratory within its existing Shanghai research facility, according to local newspaper reports. The aim, those reports said, is to develop technologies in line with international standards, and to provide IPTV-related testing and validation services.

China Telecom offers IPTV services in conjunction with Shanghai Media Group, and those services now reach roughly 1 million customers in 17 cities throughout China. The companies are aiming to reach 2 million subscribers by the end of this year.

For more:
- see this post at China Knowledge

Related articles:
China Telecom was said to be just shy of 1 million customers in May (but the company now says it hit that number the same month) China Telecom report
China's telecom industry is moving ahead with a restructuring of the entire industry China report

China Telecom moves toward 1 million IPTV customers

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:26:34 -0400

China's telecom industry is currently undergoing an extreme makeover that will result in fewer large carriers and a fully converged industry in which all carriers offer mobile and fixed line options to some degree. So, perhaps the country's emerging IPTV market has been somewhat overlooked. China Telecom, the nation's largest wireline telco, just reported that its had more than 940,000 IPTV customers as of May this year.

The service is available mostly in cities such as Shanghai, Jiangxu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shaanxi. The company launched IPTV a few years ago, but growth has moved at a modest pace thus far. China Telecom reportedly has recently been shopping for IPTV set-top boxes, looking to put in an order for as many as 574,000. Alternative wireline operator China Netcom also has offered IPTV services for a number of years, and Hong Kong's PCCW was among the first telco in the world to have success with IPTV.

For more:
- check out this coverage at China Knowledge

Related articles:
China experienced some IPTV growing pains early on China report
China Netcom rolled out IPTV with vendor ZTE China Netcom report