ZTE inks AVS-IPTV deal with China Netcom

ZTE Corp. has won the world’s first AVS-IPTV commercial network development bid offered by broadband communications and fixed-line telecommunications operator China Netcom Group Corp. (CNC).

Under the contract, ZTE will be the sole provider of IPTV network solutions for the project. As the national A/V coding and compression standard, AVS is a homegrown intellectual property in China that would enable local providers to save on patent fees imposed by foreign operators. China’s Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and CNC have been collaborating to drive the industrial implementation of AVS standard. Trial tests on the use of AVS-IPTV for commercial purposes in Dalian, China had started since November 2006.

According to the National Working Group for Intellectual Property Rights Protection in China, AVS is regarded as an important breakthrough in transforming China from a "big producer to a strong producer" in the digital A/V industry due to the technology’s foundation and homegrown nature.

"We are proud to win the AVS-IPTV commercial network bid with China Netcom," said Yu Yifang, general manager of ZTE multimedia and terminal products. "AVS-IPTV is a technology that is still in its infancy in China with huge business potentials for large-scale deployment in the years to come. We expect the project to play a significant role on the future development of IPTV in China."

ZTE provides end-to-end IPTV total solutions specifically designed for deploying multimedia services over an IP network. ZTE has conducted majority of IPTV trials in China, as well as deployed IPTV systems in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Last year, the company won deals to construct IPTV projects for Beijing Telecom, Shanghai Telecom and China Netcom.

ZTE has over 50 percent share of China’s current IPTV product solutions market.