Move Networks gets major video partnership with Cable & Wireless

UPDATE: Added comment from Move Networks CEO Roxanne Austin

Move Networks has announced its first major IPTV customer after its buy of Inuk Networks and subsequent refocus as an IPTV provider, according to the company. Move will provide IPTV services to Cable & Wireless' footprint in 38 countries, now that the service has had a successful test run in one of Cable & Wireless' regions, which Move CEO Roxanne Austin would only say is "in the Caribbean."

The companies say the deal results in the world's largest reaching IPTV partnership, but they have yet to expand the service past a fraction of Cable & Wireless' coverage area, so the viability of the offering remains to be seen. Move Networks CEO Roxanne Austin said the deal is a win for the telco partner, which is getting carriage fees, a win for Cable and Wireless, which now can offer a value-added video service over-the-top, and finally, a win for Move Networks, which will gain incremental revenue on a per-subscriber basis.

Don't hold your breath on the eventual subscriber number, as the service currently has zero paying customers, just let all of that winning wash over you. Albeit, a reasonable uptake by only, say, five percent of Cable & Wireless's stated customer base would mean 350,000 paying customers.

Move said its technology that enables high-quality video transmission over relatively low broadband access speeds will let it deploy to Cable & Wireless' 7 million total customers. Austin said this capacity enabled Cable & Wireless to offer this service to areas that otherwise would have required significant, prohibitive capital expenditure for video service provision.

For more:
- see the press release here 

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