On Telecoms SA, which has a nationwide general telecommunications licence for Greece, launched its IPTV service in late January as part of a new IP-based triple play service in the Athens region.
Optibase delivers its IPTV Carrier-Grade Headend MGW 5100 to receive and digitally compress the video channels offered, including the Nova premium package, as available on satellite.
On Telecoms now claims its on demand library holds 1,000 titles ranging from recent to classic movies. Catch-up TV, NPVR, VOD and other On Demand services, are delivered using BitBand’s Maestro content distribution and management suite, with the BitBand Vision servers streaming video content on demand to subscribers and everything secured by Verimatrix’s VCAS.
On Telecoms’s ‘VideoBox’ decoder is also HD and Dolby Digital-ready.
On Telecoms is fully owned by ON Network Holdings NV, registered in the Netherlands, and backed by ARGO Capital Partners Fund LTD, from the UK, which has already launched Germany’s Hansenet, Fastweb in Italy and UK ISP Bulldog.
The operator claims to have finalised the first part of its fibre/ADSL network, allowing it reach 40% of the population, rising to 80% later this month. It plans to invest $188 million (€143 million) between 2007/8 on infrastructure to cover Athens and Thessalonik, with the figure eventually rising to $625 million.