Orange France subscribers have a hankering for a new set-top box that lets them more fully use their IPTV service. Nearly 100,000 of them have pre-ordered the new Orange Livebox Play in anticipation of its release on Feb. 7, apparently eager to take advantage of what Delphine Ernotte Cunci, executive director of Orange France, calls a unit that is "packed full of cutting-edge technologies."
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Click image to enlarge. Image source: Livebox Play |
A Broadband TV News story put it bluntly: "Orange is in need of a better set-top box, as it is falling behind in the take-up of new subscribers." Even as the service provider gained 225,000 new subscribers in the first nine of months of 2012, its competition, Free and Bouygues Telecom, added 408,000 and 235,000, respectively, during the same period.
Cunci said he expects big things from the new unit.
"In combination with the Livebox Play packages, customers will be able to use all their screens to enjoy a vast range of uses, including browsing the Internet, playing games and social networking," he said in the story.
The box comes with Intel inside, the capability of handling 200 Mbps downloads and dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity.
"From the beginning, Orange asked us for our most powerful processor," said Paul Otellini, Intel's CEO. "That's what we gave them, with the Intel Groveland processor. It's great to see such an innovative product importing the best of the internet to TV and to other full HD devices--3D graphics, video games, and much more."
For more:
- Broadband TV News had this story
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