Motorola Celebrates Shipping Two Million IP Set-Top Boxes

Friday, September 7th, 2007
  • Motorola doubles one million IP set-top box milestone in under six months
  • Landmark reached as Motorola supports expansion of TeliaSonera IPTV services

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – IBC 2007 — Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced that it has shipped its two millionth Internet Protocol (IP) set-top box. The milestone was reached just five months after the shipment of its one millionth IP set-top box.

“The television market is fundamentally changing as consumers demand more choice, more control and more interactivity in the way they access TV,” said Doug Means, corporate vice president, Motorola Home & Network Mobility. “Motorola has a 50-year heritage in the video business and we’re committed to leading the market, helping it grow and ensuring that our customers are armed with the best technology to serve the most demanding of viewers.”

The landmark demonstrates the rapid expansion of the IPTV market. The two millionth set-top – a VIP1510 – – was shipped as part of the provision of 150,000 units to TeliaSonera, Sweden’s largest telecommunications company. As the major supplier of digital set top boxes for TeliaSonera digital-TV service, Motorola provides the customer premises equipment (CPE) and application platform to deliver IPTV, on-demand services and Internet-on-TV. After announcing 100,000 subscribers in May 2007, this delivery marks the swift growth of the TeliaSonera service to more than 150,000 subscribers.

“We have an ambitious timeline for the deployment of our digital video services; this has been recognized in the growth of our subscriber base, which increased by more than 50 percent in under three months,” said Erik Hallberg, senior vice president & head of market area broadband services Sweden, TeliaSonera. “In such a competitive market it is imperative that we employ best-in-class equipment; technology that performs consistently and delivers the best service. Motorola provides this equipment.”

A series of acquisitions in the past 12 months (including Broadbus, Tut Systems, Terayon Systems and Modulus Video) has strengthened Motorola’s position as a leader in the video market. Motorola offers an end-to-end solution for the service provider/aggregator wanting to deliver a range of video content and services into the home. The VIP1510 set-top is part of a portfolio that includes support for a hard drive for DVR functionality and personal video storage, as well as the ability to process MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/AVC in both standard definition and high definition. Additionally, Motorola offers hybrid models for combining IPTV with digital terrestrial broadcasts.

“IPTV is growing. The number of IPTV homes will rise from around three million now to more than 50 million in the next five years[1], but it is the extra services which are possible on an IP highway into the home that are so compelling,” said Peter White, principal analyst and founder, Rethink Research Associates. “Home security, music, gaming and new advertising capabilities make IPTV so exciting and will turn it into a $20 billion service industry by 2011. But the reduction in churn that it creates on fixed lines will halt the erosion of the $1 trillion global fixed-line telco market.”

A portion of the revenue from the shipment of VIP1510 set-tops to TeliaSonera was recognized by Motorola in previous quarters.

Link: Motorola