Enhanced Experience, Greater Quality for Canada's TELUS OptikTV Viewers

• Ericsson provides TELUS with MPEG-4 AVC HD encoding solution for high quality consumer services
• Meets growing consumer demand for HD in the home
• Solution meets today's needs and is part of future network infrastructure upgrade

TORONTO, March 28, 2013 /CNW/ - Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has provided Canadian telecommunications carrier TELUS with a market-leading MPEG-4 AVC HD compression solution for its IPTV service, called Optik TV. The deployment enables TELUS to enhance the consumer experience by providing the best HD video quality possible while observing the government mandate for advertisement loudness control.

TELUS is one of the world's fastest-growing TV providers, offering both IPTV and satellite TV, with 678,000 customers by the end of 2012, up 169,000 viewers (33 per cent) from a year earlier.

"Video is such an important part of the at-home and on-the-go entertainment experience and today's consumers demand more and more content at the highest possible quality," said Ibrahim Gedeon, TELUS' Chief Technology Officer. "We need technologies that allow us to exceed customer expectations for HD quality on an expansive selection of channels while staying ahead of the tremendous growth as we build out and enhance our network infrastructure. Ericsson has been a valued partner for nearly 10 years providing solutions for our IPTV services. We are pleased to once again work with Ericsson as we take our consumer TV experiences to the next level."

TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services including wireless, data, IP, voice, television, entertainment and video. It powers 13.1 million customer connections including 7.7 million wireless subscribers, 3.4 million wireline network access lines, 1.4 million Internet subscribers and 678,000 TELUS TV customers. TELUS TV offers subscribers a choice of English and French language channel packages, as well as on-demand viewing, pay-per-view live sports and movies, and premium sports packages.

Ericsson's most recent ConsumerLab research report shows that consumers are increasingly interested in the quality of their TV service, at least on the main TV screen in their home. As many as 41 percent of consumers are prepared to pay for HD.TELUS Optik TV offers more than 600 channels, 145 in HD, and includes all their corresponding HD channels for no extra charge.

"There is little doubt that TV remains a premium experience worth paying for, but if this is to continue, operators must find ways to continue to innovate and meet consumer's expectations," said Ove Anebygd, Vice-President and Head of TV, Ericsson. "TV is constantly evolving, and operators must stay ahead of the game in order to drive their business forward. We're pleased to extend our work with TELUS to enable greater TV experiences through both live and on-demand content, giving consumers in Canada a higher quality experience than ever before."

At the heart of the solution are Ericsson's Video Processors, which extract the maximum efficiency possible from the MPEG-4 AVC specification. This efficiency gain typically allows operators to get more HDTV channels into their transmission bandwidth. The solution also delivers operational flexibility for operations today and simple upgrading for evolving future needs.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Ericsson Video Processors

Ericsson nCompass Control

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SOURCE: Ericsson Canada

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