Alcatel Demos IPTV Using WM9

PARIS -- Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), the world leader in broadband access, announced today that it is supporting Windows Media 9 Series to offer advanced multi-media television solutions.

The Alcatel carrier class 5950 Media Manager software platform will support Windows Media 9 Series and Microsoft Windows CE.NET on a number of leading set top hardware platforms including Thomson, Pace and Samsung. The Alcatel 5950 Media Manager is an open and flexible, deployment-proven middleware platform capable of provisioning and managing rich media services, such as video. The Alcatel 5950 Media Manager drives IPTV revenue growth, protects CPE investment and enables constantly improved return on investment through an architecture that enables rapid utilization of advanced technologies such as those provided by Microsoft.

"With our unrivalled real-world experience with over 70 broadband operators, Alcatel has a deep understanding of both the potential and challenges for service providers executing multi-media service strategies," said Alan Mottram, President of Alcatel's Fixed Solutions Division. "The flexibility of our application suite allowed us to integrate quickly with Windows Media 9 Series to offer the high-quality solution our customers need."

"The performance and scalability of Alcatel's 5950 Media Manager software platform equipped with Windows Media 9 Series delivers service providers new opportunities for the distribution of content over broadband," said Jonathan Usher, director, Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft Corp. "Alcatel's customers will benefit from the efficiency of Windows Media 9 Series, which delivers standard and high-definition video with multichannel audio at approximately one-third the data rate of MPEG-2."

Other product or service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

International Broadcasting Convention (IBC 2003) is held in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Alcatel SA