Mumbai: UTStarcom  has signed a contract with Aksh Optifibre to deploy its end-to-end RollingStream Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) solution in 20 cities on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s ADSL 2+ network, a UTStarcom-built multiplay infrastructure that currently supports more than 75 percent of the active wirelines in India.

The IPTV offering which will be made available to more than 250,000 BSNL broadband subscribers in 20 cities throughout India with Aksh’s iControl service, gives both large cities and small towns the opportunity to experience interactive entertainment such as time-shifting, video-on-demand (VOD), interactive gaming, live television voting and distance learning programs.

"Demand for IPTV in India is increasing exponentially and UTStarcom is supplying Aksh with the solutions and infrastructure it needs to continue that momentum," said Aksh Optifibre  chairman and managing director Dr. Kailash S. Choudhari.

"India is moving toward becoming a top IPTV market and companies such as Aksh and BSNL are making inroads to turn those aspirations into reality," said UTStarcom vice president and managing director, South Asia operations Vijay Yadav. "RollingStream’s unique end-to-end architecture allows it to be both flexible and long-reaching in scope to support deployments in a small populated town or an entire country or region."

UTStarcom’s RollingStream end-to-end IPTV system currently supports more than 956,000 live IPTV subscribers globally and maintains a current total system capacity of more than 2.5 million subscribers as a result of recent successful deployments in China with China Netcom and China Telecom, in India with Bharti Airtel, BSNL/Aksh, MTNL/Aksh and United Telecoms Limited, in Sri Lanka with SLT, in Japan with Softbank, in Latin America with Brasil Telecom and in Taiwan with Markwell.