CHICAGO October 28, 2005 France Telecom announced today its receipt of
the InfoVision Award from the International Engineering Consortium
(IEC) for its videotelephony service at the Broadband World Forum
Europe 2005 in Madrid, Spain.
In deployment since December 2004, the service employs an integrated,
fixed-mobile convergence architecture to deliver video communication
integrated with traditional voice communication on both landline and
mobile terminals.
"France Telecom is the worldwide leader for fixed, mobile, and Internet
integrated videotelephony services," said Denis Guibard, vice
president of France Telecom's videotelephony program, during a
plenary session at the World Forum.
"Our strategy with videotelephony is to offer it as an enrichment of
telephony at the same cost as audio-only communications," said
Guibard. "We do not plan to overcharge for video."
The videotelephony offering incorporates three fully interoperable
services: the Livecom service for PC videotelephony, the MaLigne visio
service for videotelephony over a dedicated (DSL) terminal, and the
Orange Intense 3G service for videotelephony over a mobile phone.
When asked by an audience member how successful France Telecom has
been with its videotelephony service over the past 10 months, Guibard
said that the service was developing at a satisfactory pace for such
an innovation in usages. He added, "We have been counting adoptions
of the service in the tens of thousands."
France Telecom, as other major carriers, has made forays into
videotelephony in the past without turning it into a commercial
launch, Guibard said, and there are three main reasons why the company
is doing this again. With the pervasive deployment of broadband and
the dramatic reduction in the cost of equipment and terminals,
videotelephony can now be offered as a true mass-market service. Also,
there has been increased 'image pervasiveness' in society over
the past few years, meaning people are more used to having their
images on display. And finally, the drive into videotelephony is an
effort by France Telecom to provide its customers with increased value
over fixed and mobile broadband access.
The InfoVision Award program recognizes corporations and individuals
for pioneering developments in technologies, applications, products,
advances, and services judged to be the most unique and beneficial in
the telecommunications industry.
The IEC's Broadband World Forum Europe
http://www.iec.org/events/2005/bbwf/ , unparallel to any other
communications event, hosted more than 90 exhibitors, drew nearly
6,000 industry professionals to register, and presented more than 40
sessions over four days at the Palacio Municipal de Congresos de
Madrid. The two-day WiMAX Global ComForum also took place at the
event, addressing technology and business challenges associated with
WiMAX wireless broadband networks. Encouraging professionals to learn
and share information, both events fulfilled the IEC's commitment to
catalyzing positive change in technology, business, and academia.
For more information, please contact Lisa Reyes at +1-312-559-3325 or
mailto:lreyes@iec.org.
Lisa Reyes (forums_@iec-mail.org)