Germany to get IPTV from Microsoft and Deutsche Telekom

The German equivalent of BT Vision announced earlier this week, has been unveiled by Deutsche Telekom and Microsoft

21 March 2006 18:00 GMT / By Stuart Miles

The German equivalent of BT Vision announced earlier this week, has been unveiled by Deutsche Telekom and Microsoft.

The two companies have said that they will deliver IPTV (Internet Protocol television) services to consumers across Germany.

Under the agreement Deutsche Telekom Group will offer customers what many are calling “next-generation television”. The service will be made up of interactive services and a range of entertainment products all supplied over its VDSL broadband telephone networks - a type of ADSL that can run at speeds up to 50MB per second.

Deutsche Telekom will use the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform to offer these services.

The platform will enable customers to receive regular TV programs as well as advanced television services including standard- and high-definition programs, interactive TV, digital video recording and video on demand similar to the services outlined by BT earlier this week.

“In recent months, the experts at T-Online have run the Microsoft TV platform through extensive tests, and we are convinced that we will be able to offer excellent-quality IPTV services that will expand as we need them to”, said Kai-Uwe Ricke, chairman of the Board of Management for Deutsche Telekom AG.

The service is launching later this year, possibly in time for the World Cup, in 10 major German cities including Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Munich, although not specific date has yet been set for a roll out.

Full tags

Home Cinema, IPTV, Microsoft