Telefonica launches Imagenio HD
November 20, 2008
From David Del Valle in Madrid
Spain's Telefonica is launching Imagenio on High Definition through its FTTH network for subscribers to Trio Futura at 10 or 30 Megabites.
The move comes at a time when the Spanish Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT) has just authorized the company to distribute services over its new FTTH network on condition that it allows other competitors to effectively install their own infrastructure.
Initially, the regulator had banned Telefonica from operating services over its FTTH network obliging the company to share its new 100 Mbps network with competitors. Now, the CMT has lifted that obligation on condition that the company shares information on the physical layout of the network and process requests from other operators for wholesale access.
Telefonica has been distributing triple play services over the new FTTH network to 54,000 clients in Madrid and Barcelona and plans to reach more than 1,000 FTTH customers by year end.
Apart from the HD service, the company is developing a new system to distribute VoD content on 3D through its IPTV service Imagenio, which currently has almost 600,000 clients.