Astro TV conducting IPTV trials with Time dotCom

PETALING JAYA: With Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) venturing into the broadcasting business with its IPTV (internet protocol TV) offering, Astro TV is not about to let any of its market share slip by without a fight.
It is learnt that Astro TV is conducting trials for its IPTV offering in Mont Kiara by riding on Time dotCom Bhd’s (TDC) fibre optic fast-speed network.
Astro TV needs an IPTV platform and if it were to wait till sister company Maxis Communications Bhd completes its network build-up, that may well give TM an edge in some places.
Hence, the trials with TDC which began at the end of July involving about 100 users.
Sources said this was a technical trial for the Astro b.yond to determine if the network was able to carry enough video content at fast speed. TDC is providing the GPON infrastructure for the trials.
A GPON access network not only enables telcos to build and support video services, but provides the ability to scale the network to deliver any bandwidth-hungry services such as HDTV (high definition TV) and VOD (video on demand), an IP-based broadband video service.
Astro needs a minimum of 15-20 megabits per second (Mbps) for content delivery and TDC’s network can provide up to 100Mbps. Sources said trial users were able to watch all of Astro’s programmes in HD and 3D quality.
The trials make TDC a potential contender for access to Astro besides Maxis. However, since TDC only focuses on multi-dwellings such as condominiums and apartments blocks, its reach may be limited. TDC finds it too costly to focus on fibre to the home as done by TM.
TM is bundling IPTV with its high-speed broadband service known as Unifi. But content will remain the differentiating factor in the IPTV business. For now, Astro has rights to loads of content but don’t underestimate TM as it is tying to link up with a lot of content providers to make its IPTV proposition appealing.
Maxis, on the other hand, is working overtime to get a fast-speed Internet network up. It has appointed Huawei as the exclusive supplier for the next generation network. Maxis said the job would also include the building and managing of a full-service Fibre To The X network using GPON technologies.
Maxis has also conducted trails for IPTV involving 50-odd users during the recent World Cup.
Whether Astro will need more than one player to deliver its IPTV content is unclear but Maxis certainly is building a fibre optic network in its quest to become a quad player and it will have to rely on content from Astro.
(by B.K. Sidhu)
(Published in The Star on Sept 9, 2010)