ZTE Corporation will install the first IPTV trial for the Beijing arm of China Netcom, the second largest fixed-line telecom operator in China.

ZTE will become one of the largest providers of trial IPTV infrastructure in the world, with a total capacity of nearly 500,000 subscribers and over 200,000 concurrent users in China, Europe and South America.

This is the fourth contract won by ZTE, after three IPTV contract from China Telecom. In 2005, ZTE was at the heart of the latest IPTV developments when it landed three successive IPTV contracts from China Telecom, China’s largest fixed-line telecommunications operator. This contract confirms that ZTE is China’s largest IPTV systems provider. The new network will provide video services including video on demand (VoD), broadcasting, time-shifted television (TSTV), private video recorder (PVR ) and near video on demand (NVoD) as well as value-added services such as interactive games, information services, instant communications, online albums and e-learning to 50,000 IPTV subscribers.

“Global fixed-line operators are now focusing their attention on deploying IPTV services, and provisioning customized and rich-content services to subscribers,” said Yu Yifang, GM of ZTE multimedia product lines. “With advanced telecommunications equipment technologies, in-depth insight into multimedia telecommunications services as well as strong R&D capabilities, ZTE´s NGN-based IPTV system delivers distinct advantages in terms of network planning and service operation,” he continued.

“Now ZTE not only has the largest share of IPTV trials in Chinese market, but also has become one of the major world providers of trial IPTV systems,” added Yu Yifang.

China currently has over 30 million broadband subscribers, with more than 50% annual growth, making it potentially the world’s largest IPTV market.