Charter Communications has upgraded about 1.6 million set-tops in nine of its systems so that they are EBIF-enabled, and it is in the process of upgrading another 1.9 million in its 15 remaining Motorola-based systems.
Charter has been working with itaas on the deployment, announced last year. When the process is completed, Charter expects to have 3.5 million of its 4.3 million video subs equipped with EBIF-enabled set-tops.
Itaas developed the initial network architecture design and customized the EBIF platform software to meet the needs for the Charter networks, the vendor said. Itaas is now performing the integration, certification testing, deployment and support for the platform and applications within each system.
Doug Ike, Charter vice president of advanced video and applications engineering, said, “With the EBIF platform in place, we will be able to provide interactive applications that enhance advertising capabilities. It also provides the foundation for an interactive TV experience for consumers.”
“Charter’s commitment to EBIF confirms their commitment to providing innovative and competitive services to consumers,” said Jaspal Bhasin, COO of itaas. “In turn, as the system integrator for this platform, our role is to ensure a smooth implementation of the new service while maintaining network reliability and performance.”
