I Goofed: SonaeCom Ericsson/Orca Correction

I requested clarification of what SonaeCom is doing with its IPTV middleware and received the following reply:

"Following the RFI process that we had in late April (where Orca also participated) two vendors requested us an onsite trial with no commitment from SonaeCom.

Our RFI process had the goal to evaluate the industry trends and roadmaps from the principal players in the market. We often conduct this RFI processes to understand the competitive advantage or disadvantage of the solutions that we are using independently of future intentions.

One of the vendors that requested us an on site trial was Ericsson."

Ericsson's press release is consistent with SonaeCom's statement above. I read too much into it. I apologize to all concerned for this error. I hope that it has not caused too much difficulty.

Ericsson Gets Sonaecom Middleware Order

Sonaecom, the competitive provider in Portugal, has selected Ericsson's new IMS-based middleware software for its IPTV service. Sonaecom will also use video encoder from Ericsson's Tandberg subsidiary. Trials and deployments have already started.

Ericsson has been using Orca's middleware at Sonaecom. In this case Ericsson is replacing a smaller middleware vendor at a smaller deployment. Ericsson's challenge will be to do the same thing with a Tier 1 carrier.

Viaccess Acquires Orca Interactive

Viaccess, the French content security company, acquire Israeli middleware provider Orca Interactive for $21.4 million. Ordca stated that its middleware supports 1.2 million active subscribers globally.

Viacess acquired Orca for a low price and now has the ability to provide middleware as well as content security. This acquisition should help Viaccess in tier 2 and tier 3 markets in particular. It will not be much help in competing with Microsoft for Tier 1s