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MUMBAI: Time Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd. (TBSPL) plans to
raise $70 million for manufacture of IPTV set-top boxes (STBs)
and expansion of its content delivery network (CDN).
The company has exclusively tied up with UK-based Amino Communications
Ltd. to manufacture AmiNET125 H.264 AVC (MPEG-4, Part 10)
compliant STBs in India. TBSPL will have the rights to sell
these STBs in India, Middle East and parts of East Africa.
The benefit of manufacturing these STBs in India will be to
bring the cost below $100.
"This is a significant development for us as India is
a potentially big market for IPTV. We have manufacturing arrangements
also in China and Taiwan," says Amino Communications
Ltd. vice president/general manager Roy Kirsopp.
TBSPL, which has already raised $10 million and got a further
$5 million from Dimensions Group, will raise a further $35
million in its second round of funding. This will be towards
expanding the CDN for IPTV.
"We are in talks for second round of investment and
have got term sheets. We hope to tie up the funds by February-March,"
says TBSPL managing director and CEO Sujata Dev.
Another $35 million will be raised through sister company
Broadband Tech Pvt. Ltd. for manufacture of STBs. The company
is in talks with three consumer electronics companies for
this. "We are negotiating with three state governments
for getting subsidy. We are in talks with consumer electronics
companies for the financing and manufacture of the STBs,"
says Dev. The company is looking at Kolkata, Chennai or another
city to set up the manufacturing facility.
Amino has been paid an upfront amount of $1 million. "We
have guaranteed Amino $10-12 million over 18 months. Dimensions
Broadband UK has committed a $7 million exposure for this,"
says Dev. The contract involves a fixed license fee and a
royalty to Amino on the STBs sold.
The AmiNET125 STB is designed on the DaVinci SoC chip from
Texas Instruments and is integrated with Kasenna middleware
and Verimatrix content protection.
"The deal will enable TBSPL to execute mass deployments
of our "MY TIME" IPTV package. STBs play the most
critical role in the IPTV business.
This relationship with a leading industry partner like Amino
would further strengthen TBSPL in establishing the business
matrix in the Indian market, capable of providing a total
end-to-end CDN solution to telecom operator partners intending
to launch IPTV," says Dev.
Adds Kirsopp: "We see opportunity in India, China and
South America. This deal validates our licensing model where
we tie up with local partners for local manufacturing."
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