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Bharti Airtel contracts UTStarcom to launch IPTV
MUMBAI:Telco major Bharti Airtel is teaming up with US-based UTStarcom for its year-end IPTV services rollout plan. Bharti Airtel has contracted UTStarcom to supply its RollingStream end-to-end IPTV solution that will enable it to offer live broadcast television, time-shifted TV and video-on-demand (VoD) bundled with the operator‘s existing broadband and voice services, which can all be consolidated into a single bill sent to customers at the end of each month. “We are happy to team with UTStarcom to offer IPTV and other new services to our customers in India,” said Airtel Broadband and Telephone Service president Atul Bindal. “UTStarcom‘s RollingStream solution has proven technology to support our requirements in rolling out IPTV service in India. We are running our IPTV trials in Gurgaon and have received a favorable response from our customers participating in these trials,” added Bindal. Earlier this year, UTStarcom announced a three-year contract through its collaboration with Aksh Optifibre Ltd. to deploy its RollingStream solution with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) in India. In addition to its deployments in India, UTStarcom also has commercial IPTV deployments with China Telecom and China Netcom in China and Softbank in Japan. Demand for IPTV is expected to grow significantly in the Asia Pacific region. According to Frost and Sullivan, IPTV subscribers in this region are expected to surpass 27 million by 2013 with China and India being the high-growth markets. “Today‘s announcement represents our second commercial deployment of RollingStream in India this year,” said UTStarcom South Asia MD Vijay Yadav. “We believe our RollingStream solution can revolutionize the way television is viewed in India by making services more interactive and personalized to the end user.”
Airtel expects to offer this new service bundle to customers in Gurgaon and the National Capital Region (NCR) by the end of the year. The service will also be rolled out in a phased manner across eight additional regions in the country.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
