Cable & Wireless and IPTV platform company Inuk Networks have announced a new a $140 million IPTV deal. Inuk Networks will be extending the reach of its IPTV solution into the residential marketing as a supplier of multichannel television for UK consumers.
The deal enables the rollout of Inuk’s Freewire TV service over the Cable & Wireless nationwide multicast network and sees C&W as the first operator to deliver a national IPTV service via broadband. This is also the UK’s first converged IPTV, VoIP and broadband service
Key points of the deal are:
- C&W will be first to deliver a national IPTV service – Inuk’s Freewire television service (www.freewiretv.com)
- The deal is worth £70 million over five years
- C&W will be able to offer Inuk’s IPTV platform to its wholesale DSL customers
- Currently Inuk’s triple play service is available on the JANET network to UK students – with 40 universities representing more than 100,000 rooms now signed up.
More About FreeWire TV
- FreeWire TV adds another new competitor to Sky (the UK’s DirecTV) along with Virgin Media.
- A quick look at the FreeWire TV Guide showed the regular FreeView channels — so nothing new there.
- Pricing appears to be free – at least for the IPTV service.
- You can simply download an application to your PC to watch FreeWire TV (if the service is available in your area). Windows XP only unfortunately.
- Pricing for an unmetered broadband account with FreeWire is £20 ($40). I don’t yet know if the same pricing will be used for the new C&W venture.
– Broadband VoIP – an ample range of options for the telecom sectors.
– IP phone – information on the best VoIP phons available
