BOGOTA, 13 Aug. (Reuters) -
The Telecommunications Company of Bogota (ETB) announced on Monday that it selected Huawei to implement a hybrid interactive television system on the network it currently has in Colombia, as part of its modernization process to face strong competition in the sector.
ETB said that in this way it will be able to provide high-definition interactive television services through broadband and internet connections on multiple devices such as televisions, cell phones and tablets.
ETB subscribers will have the possibility to access multiple services such as Video on Demand (VOD) stores, pause options, record and rewind live television (Tme-shifted -TSTV) and games, among others.
The Colombian company, in a process of modernization to face the strong competition of the sector, did not reveal the amount it will pay to the selected supplier.
Huawei is a leading company in the field of digital home solutions and a global leader in ipTV, multi-screen and video hybrid interactive television solutions, serving more than 13 million subscribers in 46 commercial deployments worldwide.
"We are proud to be ETB's strategic partner in one of the most innovative interactive television projects in Colombia in recent years," Huawei's General Manager for Colombia Lu Qi was quoted as saying in a statement.
"The work we are doing in conjunction with ETB allows us to once again reinforce our company's leadership in digital solutions for the home and contributes to the development of the telecommunications and television industry in the country," Qi added.
ETB, controlled by the government of the city of Bogotá with 88.4 percent ownership, is one of the largest companies in Colombia's telecommunications sector.
The company is one of the largest telephone operators in Colombia, with about two million lines, and the first by number of subscribers of broadband Internet, a segment of the telecommunications market in which it provides 34 percent of connections nationwide.
ETB provides access service to fixed telephony, mobile, internet and television in a strong competition with Claro of the Mexican América Móvil and the Telefónica group of Spain.
