Smart Telecom has acquired the assets of Envi Communications, the Dublin-based triple play provider of broadband, television and telephone services and it will offer its existing 15,000 residential customers a ‘Triple Play’ package of Television, Broadband and Telephone for a flat monthly fee from November 1.
Smart Telecom will integrate Envi’s existing infrastructure and customer base and it plans to offer a phased rollout of channel line-up and IPTV services to the wider broadband residential market from early next year.
Established in 2004, Envi had invested more than €800,000 its network infrastructure. Under the terms of the takeover, Envi staff are now part of the revitalised Smart Telecom Ltd, though Smart did not assume any of Envi’s liabilities.
Smart Telecom also announced it is making an investment of €2.5 million in a new state of the art MPEG 4 IPTV headend and middleware IPTV platform, which will enable Smart Telecom to deliver its new digital services of over 100 TV and Radio channels to around 550,000 homes across Ireland.
“The Triple Play market in Europe is expected to be worth €1 billion in 2007 yet it is still in its absolute infancy in Ireland,” Pio Murtagh, chief operations officer at Smart Telecom claimed. “This deal puts Smart Telecom at the cutting edge of interactive and integrated television services in Ireland,” Murtagh said.
Murtagh continued, “The MPEG 4 offering enables Smart Telecom to provide the very latest in compression technology for our customers. Our new range of Set Top Boxes can provide Personal Video Recording (PVR) functionality. Customers will have a digital video recording capacity of up to 80 hours in addition to multi-stream viewing.” Pricing will have substantial and attractive discounts reflective of customer product choice.
Smart Vision customers can now look forward to benefiting from additional IPTV services including Video on Demand, TV on Demand, on screen Account Management including flexible bill payment options and on screen Phone Line integration.
Smart Telecom has been delivering IPTV services in Ireland since 2004 Following its €90m refinancing announcement in June, Smart Telecom is now focused on data, broadband and VoIP services to the Corporate, SME and Residential sectors. The total value of these markets has been estimated at €2.4 billion by telecoms regulator ComReg.
Murtagh said the Envi acquisition was a natural fit for Smart Telecom. “Envi’s triple play services will become a seamless offering as part of our cutting edge Smart Vision services delivered through our Next Generation Network.”
The Smart NGN is the foundation for all Smart Telecom products and services. It comprises of fibre network, unbundled exchanges, licenced microwave access, network management and processes to offer next generation services nationwide.
Envi was set up to deliver cutting-edge digital home services such as multi-channel digital TV, high-capacity broadband internet and digital telephony. Outlining the sale to existing Envi customers, former Managing Director Colm Hayden said: “Today’s announcement means existing ENVI customers will continue to enjoy get triple play services, with the added benefit of a next generation national infrastructure to deliver them. Integration with Smart Telecom is viewed as a natural fit for Envi and our customers will avail of enhanced services through the Smart Vision offering.”
IPTV is the fastest growing pay-TV platform in Europe, outstripping all other platforms combined. Media analyst Screen Digest predicts that subscriptions to IPTV services across Europe will almost double from 2.9 million in 2006 to 5.6 million in 2007. Subscription revenues from IPTV are forecast to rise to €1 billion this year, from €470 million in 2006.
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