Contact Information: Press Contacts: Wilson Craig Cisco 408-525-2524 wicraig@cisco.com Monica Morgan SES AMERICOM 609-987-4143 monica.morgan@ses-americom.com Paul Sims SES AMERICOM 678-576-6126 paul.sims@ses-americom.com Industry Analyst Contact: Carter Cromwell Cisco 408-526-6914 ccromwell@cisco.com Investor Relations Contact: Liz Lemon Cisco 408-527-8452 lemon@cisco.com
Cisco and SES AMERICOM to Launch Complete IPTV Solution for North American RLECs
New Offer Includes Set-Top Boxes, Network Infrastructure, Content Aggregation, and Systems Integration
| Source: Cisco Systems
SAN JOSE, CA and PRINCETON, NJ -- (MARKET WIRE) -- February 7, 2007 -- Cisco® (NASDAQ : CSCO ) and
SES AMERICOM, an SES company (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg stock exchanges
: SESG), today announced an agreement to enable rural local exchange
carriers (RLECs) in North America to easily, quickly and cost-effectively
offer IPTV to their subscribers using an innovative solution that combines
the Cisco IP Next-Generation Networks (IP NGNs) with SES AMERICOM's
IP-PRIME™ IPTV service. The end-to-end offering processes content and
television programming and distributes it via satellite to
telecommunications companies and their IPTV consumers nationwide. Systems
integration from both companies and their respective partners is an
integral part of the offering.
In rural areas of the United States, telecommunications companies will
offer IP-PRIME™ through the National Rural Telecommunications
Cooperative (NRTC) in partnership with the National Telecommunications
Cooperative Association (NTCA).
Cisco and SES AMERICOM understand the challenges RLECs face in transforming
themselves from voice and data providers to "Experience Providers" that can
offer any-play services anywhere, anytime. The companies' combined
technology, industry relationships and experience make it simple for RLECs
to add IPTV to their service portfolios and converge all services over a
single IP network. This enables RLECs to gain significant cost
efficiencies, generate new revenue, and establish long-term competitive
advantages.
The fully-managed SES IP-PRIME solution combined with the Cisco IP NGN
architecture creates a complete end-to-end IPTV service with encoding,
encapsulation, third-party middleware, scrambling/descrambling, satellite
receivers, conditional access, set-top boxes, service management and
integration services. More than 30 television programmers and networks
representing more than 290 channels have signed IP-PRIME transport
agreements to date. The combined offering is currently in beta trials with
several RLECs and is set for commercial deployment early this year.
"We're harnessing Cisco's network expertise and combining it with our
proven IP-PRIME solution to offer service providers and consumers the best
choices and the highest-quality IPTV services in the world today," said Jon
Russo, SVP marketing and product management for SES AMERICOM. "Cisco is a
household name and a technology innovator with the resources and experience
to accelerate RLEC IPTV deployments."
RLECs that select the combined offering also have a choice of IPTV set-top
boxes, including a full complement of devices from Cisco. The Cisco suite
of IPTV set-top boxes includes standard-definition (SD), high-definition
(HD), SD/HD digital video recorder (DVR), and three-stream gateway
products. SES AMERICOM also employs the company's MPEG-4 Part 10 standard-
and high-definition encoders to deliver multi-channel standard- and
high-definition video services, and the ROSA™ Network Management System
for network and equipment monitoring and control capabilities.
"This solution greatly reduces the complexity of and time-to-market for
RLEC IPTV deployments" said Jeff Spagnola, vice-president of service
provider marketing for Cisco. "We are extremely pleased to be working with
SES AMERICOM to move this market forward and help RLECs become 'Experience
Providers' to meet their subscribers' increasing demands."
About SES AMERICOM
A pioneer of global satellite communications services, SES AMERICOM
operates a fleet of 19 spacecraft providing service throughout the
Americas. As a member of the SES family, AMERICOM provides end-to-end
telecommunications solutions to any region in the world via a fleet of more
than 40 satellites. AMERICOM serves broadcasters, cable programmers,
aeronautical and maritime communications integrators, Internet service
providers, mobile communications networks, government agencies, educational
institutions, carriers and secure global data networks with efficient
communication and content distribution solutions.
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