Deutsche Telekom signs up to Microsoft's IPTV

Deutsche Telekom announced on Tuesday that it will use Microsoft's IPTV Edition software to deliver TV service over broadband to millions of consumers throughout Germany.

Several carriers throughout the world have been testing Microsoft's IPTV software for more than a year, and now many of those tests are turning into commercial deployments. The Deutsche Telekom agreement is the largest contract Microsoft has signed in Europe, said Christine Heckart, general manager for marketing at Microsoft.

The agreement is also the second-largest IPTV deal in the world, behind Microsoft's deal with AT&T, which is currently testing the service with a select group of residents in San Antonio, Texas. AT&T is planning a wider deployment for later this year.

Heckart said: "There were a lot of rumours that this deal would go a different way," alluding to the fact that Siemens, which is headquartered in Germany and is an important equipment supplier to Deutsche Telekom, offers a competing IPTV solution. She added: "This deal and the others we have announced recently validate our technology and show the momentum we are getting in this market."

Including Deutsche Telekom, Microsoft has announced that 13 broadband service providers will use its IPTV Edition software. Just last week, it announced that Telecom Italia signed on as a customer. Other announced customers include BT, Swisscom, T-Online France and Verizon. Three companies - Bell Canada, BellSouth and Reliance Infocomm - are still testing the software, Microsoft said.

Deutsche Telekom's IPTV service will ride over the carrier's newly built VDSL (very-high-bit-rate DSL) broadband network. The phone company plans, by mid 2006, to offer the service in 10 German cities including Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg and Munich.

Marguerite Reardon writes for CNET News.com