Thomson Reaches Milestone of 1.5 Million Digital Cable Set-top Boxes Shipped to Latin America's Largest Cable Operator, NET Serviços

Thomson Reaches Milestone of 1.5 Million Digital Cable Set-top Boxes Shipped to Latin America’s Largest Cable Operator, NET Serviços

PARIS — Thomson (Euronext 18453; NYSE:TMS) today announced that it has delivered 1.5 million digital cable set-top boxes to Brazilian cable operator NET Serviços. This milestone underscores both Thomson’s position as one of the leading providers of convergent premises solutions to operators worldwide and its key role in supporting NET Serviços’ expansion plans in the Brazilian market.

With more than 2.5 million pay-TV subscribers, 1,6 million broadband customers and 718,000 fixed telephony lines, NET Serviços is the largest cable operator in Latin America and a pioneer in the region in terms of its triple-play offering. With a potential 9 million homes passed, its network extends for over 40 thousand kilometres covering 79 different cities across the country, including the main metropolitan regions of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

In supplying its digital cable set-top box (DCI10NET) in tandem with broadband cable modems (DCM425), Thomson is supporting NET Serviços’ plans to offer multi-service bundles of broadband and broadcast services to its cable TV subscribers.

Hitting the mark of 1.5 million set-top boxes installed over a two-year period illustrates the speed at which NET Serviços is digitizing its network and expanding the scope of its service offering to its subscriber base.

“With our extensive network and existing customer base, NET Serviços is well positioned to drive the adoption of both digital TV and associated bundles of voice and Internet access within Brazil” said NET CEO Jose Antonio Felix. “Our long-term partnership with Thomson will also ensure that we have access to the very best products and related expertise required to offer the richest multimedia experience to our customers.”

“Unique in our ability to provide end-to-end solutions for the delivery of both modular and integrated triple play over cable, we look forward to helping NET Serviços further expand its broad and exciting range of services across the country.” said Frédéric Kurkjian, Vice President of Thomson’s Video Premises Systems, in the Systems division. “This milestone is strong validation of both the strengths of our current product offering for digital cable TV and cable broadband delivery and our ability to support customers as they move towards bundling voice, TV and Internet”.

According to industry analysts, IMS Research, the number of digital cable TV subscribers in Latin America was set to reach 4.598 million by the end of 2008 and further rise to 6 million by 2009.