Microsoft wrangled a contract potentially worth half a billion dollars from Reliance Communications to help provide IPTV in India.
The two announced what they’re calling a strategic partnership to deliver video services based on Microsoft’s Mediaroom IPTV software. Reliance will have exclusive deployment rights for Mediaroom in India.
Reliance plans to leverage Mediaroom to offer both SD and HD video, video-on-demand (VOD), digital video recording (DVR) capability, instant channel changing, and personal media sharing. Reliance’s IPTV service is scheduled to be launched by March 2008.
Reliance Communications has a customer base of more than 38 million, including more than 1.3 million individual overseas retail customers. Its corporate clientele includes 600 Indian and 250 multinational corporations, and more than 200 global carriers.