Spanish Telco giant Telefonica has chosen Ericsson to take control of integration and implementation of its Global Video Platform (GVP), designed to unify its worldwide pay-TV operations, mainly in Europe and Latin America. The aim is for GVP to allow Telefonica subscribers to access video services such as live TV, video-on-demand and premium services simultaneously over any network from any device.
Telefonica has turned to Ericsson for its OSS (Operations Support System) and BSS (Business Support System) software to gain operational efficiencies and upgrade the end-to-end operating environment.
"We want people to be able to get their content whether they are on IPTV or OTT (over-the-top) networks, on mobile or fixed,” said Vivek Dev, director of digital services at Telefonica Digital. “We chose Ericsson as the primary integrator because of their TV expertise as well as their knowledge in the IT domain."
The announcement of Ericsson’s involvement follows the revelation in Nov. 2012 that Microsoft will be the major partner for the infrastructure development underneath the operational management, focused around its Mediaroom middleware software. This had already been adopted by Telefonica’s Movistar Imagenio on Xbox 360 service in Spain, which provides 12 linear channels. Mediaroom also provides the foundation for Telefonica’s Vivo TV Fibra in Brazil and Movistar IPTV service in Chile launched this year, which both now run on the new GVP platform.
Although predominantly focused on IPTV and increasingly OTT as well, Telefonica’s pay-TV services also include some satellite operations, for example in Chile, so one of the requirements for GVP was to be capable of delivery over all network types, as well as being able to reach the principle device platforms.
Meanwhile, Ericsson will most likely be cooperating with Alcatel Lucent as well as Microsoft within the Telefonica account. Alcatel Lucent won the business to combine Telefonica’s existing telecommunication OSS under a single global platform for monitoring and management. This will involve standardizing both software and procedures across Telefonica’s fixed and mobile networks, and integrating the new network management software platform with the rest of the operator’s network operations. This will have to fit with Ericsson’s higher level OSS for video.