Sezmi scores hybrid TV win with Mexican operator Iusacell

Sezmi has scored another international win, announcing today it was partnering with Mexican operator Grupo Iusacell to deploy its hybrid broadcast-broadband platform to pay TV consumers in Mexico. This announcement comes shortly after Sezmi was selected as the television platform for a wireless quadruple play in Malaysia last year.

The Sezmi platform will enable Iusacell to launch video services for its Iusacell, Unefon, and Totalplay businesses. The services will include both home TV and mobile TV experiences. Although several distinct service offerings, with distinct branding, will be launched, all will use a single unified Sezmi video platform.

"Grupo Iusacell is committed to providing its customers with the most advanced video experience at the lowest cost. We conducted an extensive evaluation of television solutions and concluded that Sezmi's personalized video services platform was uniquely capable of meeting our business needs," said Adrian Steckel, CEO of Grupo Iusacell.  "We found that Sezmi is the only solution on the market today that allows us to leverage the infrastructure investments we have already made, create multiple service offerings based on a single platform, and efficiently manage our business operations after deployment. We are looking forward to working with Sezmi to bring these new offerings to our customers."

Sezmi's hybrid television platform will optimize usage of Grupo Iusacell's existing fiber and mobile networks. The company said that will allow Iusacell to deploy quickly and will require minimal capital investment.

"Global demand for Sezmi's hybrid television platform continues to grow," said Buno Pati, CEO of Sezmi. "Here in Mexico we'll be deploying over fiber, 3G and 4G mobile networks, while half way around the world in Malaysia, our same service platform is being implemented over DVB-T2 and 4G. We are not limited by infrastructure and truly believe that television service consumers should not be either."

In October, Sezmi and YTL Communications, the Internet arm of Malaysia's YTL Corporation, announced a partnership to launch Asia's first converged intelligent TV and Internet service, providing wireless delivery of all consumer entertainment and communications services to homes and mobile devices in Malaysia by the end of 2011.

The "quadruple play" service will be the first of its kind in the world, offering voice, data and television services to the home and mobile devices over a hybrid broadcast and 4G wireless network.

Pati said the legacy structure that exists in the U.S. can make it hard to do business. "In the U.S., what we find ourselves doing is weaving in and out of the legacy structure that exists; you try to fit yourself into that legacy system and business model," he said. The deal in Malaysia, and in many less-developed areas of the world, fits Sezmi's play perfectly, allowing the company to really show what it's capable of doing.

For more:
- see this release

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