Telekom Austria Deploys Harmonic’s Video Solutions for New Digital TV Service

September 5, 2006 – Harmonic has announced that Telekom Austria is using its digital video solutions, including the DiviCom encoders, for its aonDigital TV Service.

The service is being launched in Vienna and rolled out nationally. It offers viewers access to a full complement of broadcast television, radio and services such as Video-on-Demand. Harmonic claims that their encoders power more IPTV channels than any other brand and this experience could go far in establishing Telkom Austria’s IPTV service.

With the increasing trend of customer and consumer preferences shifting toward a more highly personalised anytime, anywhere ‘just for me TV’ experience, telco operators are needing to add innovative new video services to their existing portfolio of voice and data offerings in order to remain competitive. Harmonic believes that their IP-based headend solutions give operators such as Telkom Austria versatility, video quality and bandwidth efficiency, along with the scalability to support more advanced services in the future.

“To solidify and strengthen our customer relationships, revenue potential and market position, Telkom Austria is complementing its voice, data and mobile offerings with an exciting range of broadcast and on-demand TV services,” stated Helmut Leopold, Managing Director of Platform and Technology Management at Telkom Austria. “This new service complements the wide selection of high-quality and leading-edge solutions that we offer both our fixed line and mobile customers. Harmonic was the natural choice for Telekom Austria with its complete range of native IP headend products, as well as the highly flexible NMX system for monitoring and control of our video infrastructure. Our new Harmonic DiviCom encoders maximise the efficiency of video delivery across our ADSL infrastructure while providing a high quality, high value service that will enable us to compete more efficiently over the long term.”

“On a global basis, the business of television is rapidly evolving with an expanding array of services and companies to deliver them. Telekom Austria’s new service represents another major step forward in realizing the promise of IP-based TV,” stated Patrick Harshman, President and CEO of Harmonic Inc. “Telekom Austria understands that viewers fundamentally are not concerned with how TV is delivered; they simply want to receive a compelling and differentiated service. Similarly, our customers want more than just an encoder. As with Telekom Austria, Harmonic makes it possible for operators to establish and consistently set the benchmark for a world-class service.”