Meeting the demand for TV that is personal, interactive and mobile doesn’t just place new demands on telecommunications operators, explains Tonny Uhlin, Strategic Marketing Manager and driver of Prime Integrator. An end-to-end mobile TV or IPTV solution involves an entirely new service layer, new IT solutions, hardware, business models and strategy.

“Operators are looking for the competence, the scale and the skill to take on the task,” Uhlin says.

Ericsson Global Services offerings include Business Consulting, Prime Integrator, Systems Integration and Managed Services, which are customized to the operators needs.

Global Services Business Consulting draws on Ericsson’s global experience with telecommunications operators and its understanding of market dynamics, customer demands and changing technologies to help operators launch and sustain profitable TV services, Uhlin says. Prime Integrator provides seamless integration of multivendor and multi-technology equipment, program management, partner management and competence development. Systems Integration involves integrating telecom management, IT and service layer solutions, as well as areas such as order control, he explains.

“It’s a matter of building the best solution for the individual customer - for the situation they are in today - and also making sure that we will be able to support this solution for a long time looking forward.”

In Greece, for example, Ericsson recently was asked to provide a customized solution to launch IPTV service over OTE’s existing core and access network.

Antonio Russo, IPTV Sales Manager for Multimedia, says Ericsson had to build the solution on top of a complex, multi-vendor system. This meant integrating multiple third-parties’ hardware, including Tilgin Set Top Boxes, SecureMedia CA and DRM System and Agama quality monitoring systems.

“From a business perspective it was important to focus on reuse and optimizing the systems and solutions they already have,” he says.

The project involved establishing 11 points of presence for IPTV and one center in Athens. Russo said solution architects had to optimize bandwidth, that is, manage it in order to move content closer to the subscriber without overusing the core network.

“You have to have engineers who are creative, flexible and who are open-minded and experienced with working with third parties.”

As Prime Integrator Ericsson took over content management, which involved not only responsibility for copyright protection and marketing reports, but working with the customer and selected content providers to adapt the IPTV portal’s appearance to be consistent with the content provider’s image.

Russo says Ericsson was chosen because it is capable of providing the end-to-end solution. “The customer said, basically, ‘We don’t want to deal with all the stuff.’ In an IPTV trial, the customer likes to sit in front of the TV with the remote control and see how IPTV works.

“Thanks to our open platform and our flexibility in integrating it to adapt to customer needs, we were successful and are ready to move to the commercial phase,” he says. Phase 1 launch is slated for September 2008.

Ericsson has bolstered its TV offering in recent years with the acquisition of TANDBERG Television, Redback, Marconi and Entrisphere. The acquisition of HyC in late 2007 strengthened Ericsson’s ability to support operators and service providers in the solution design, installation, integration and operation of TV services.

Another step in Ericsson’s bid to become an industry leader in TV services is the 2007 launch of the TV Center in Gothenburg, Sweden, where testing, training and sales presentations are performed in an end-to-end IPTV lab.