I had an interview with
Optibase to discuss its recent
announcement that its
encoders are being included in the
Bharti Airtel IPTV service in India.
Optibase is working with
UTStarcom at
Bharti.
UTStarcom is supplying the
middleweare, the video on demand systems, the set-top boxes, and the system integration.
In addition to
Bharti Airtel,
Optibase is included in the
IPTV deployments in India by
Aksh and Time Broadband. Both of these companies have been licensed by
MTNL to offer
IPTV services over
MTNL's network.
UTStarcom is working with three major integrators and
IPTV suppliers
UTStarcom,
ZTE, and
Huawei.
UTStarcom has a strong position in the
IPTV markets in China and India.
ZTE also has a strong position in the
IPTV market in China.
Huawei is the largest Chinese systems company and has a number of
IPTV deployments Asia, the Russian Federation, and Africa.
Optibase expects that its relationships with
UTStarcom,
Huawei, and
ZTE will provide it with a strong entry into the emerging
IPTV market in China.
Optibase has started to work on
AVS products so that it can support the Chinese video compression standard.
Optibase is also making strong sales efforts into Eastern Europe and the Russian Federation. It is seeing a lot of
RFPs from Eastern European service providers at this time.
Video encoders are generally acquired early in deployment of an IPTV service. A smaller service provider will need only a single headend system and will fully populate it with encoders before the service goes commercial. A large country will typically add additional headends as the IPTV service is expanded to support additional metropolitan areas.Optibase's strategy of focusing on India, China, and Eastern Europe is sound. This where the new IPTV services are are being deployed today. The growth potential in both India and China is very strong. Optibase can expect significant continuing business from these two companies over several years as their IPTV services expand.
