Telus (Toronto: T.TO) will leverage Ericsson's (Nasdaq: ERIC) MPEG-4 AVC HD compression for its growing Optik TV service, in order to improve HD video quality and to meet the Canadian government's loudness control requirement for advertisements.
Ericsson and Telus are hardly strangers as the Swedish vendor, which is rumored to be making a bid on Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) IPTV business, has worked with Telus for over 10 years.
Video overall has been a growing platform for Telus.
As of the end of 2012, the service provider had a total of 678,000 TV subscribers, a figure that includes both IPTV and satellite TV.
However, overall TV growth was down in Q4 2012. During the quarter, it only added 41,000 TV service subscribers, including both Optik TV and satellite.
Regardless of the slower TV sales, Optik TV sales continues to have an effect on drawing more broadband subscribers at a time when it is seeing ongoing declines in its traditional landline voice business.
It added 23,000 new broadband subscribers, ending the quarter with a total of 1.3 million customers. Overall, its broadband subscriber base rose 6.8 percent or 84,000 from a year ago.
For more:
- see the release
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