The Open IPTV Forum has announced the addition of three new members – Humax, Saudi Telecom (STC) and JT Group (Jersey Telecom) – who will be participating in the Forum’s work to shape the future of Internet Connected TV.

Humax is one of the world’s largest Set Top Box (STB) vendors. On joining the OIPF, Bob Hannent, senior technology manager, Humax, said: “Humax has a strategy towards the use of open standards as much as possible with its next generation products, and, as such, it wishes to engage with the industry in order to facilitate the growth and adoption of these standards.”

Saudi Telecommunications Company, is one of the largest telecom service provider in the Middle East region and was the first to offer (in 2010) a commercial IPTV service. With revenues of nearly $16 billion, STC is also the OIPF’s first member in the Middle East.

Sami Al Zomaia, director of data and broadband services at STC, said: “STC joins the OIPF to be able to influence and network with related companies so as to learn, influence and contribute to IPTV technology and services in the future.”

Dave Newbold, chief operations and technology officer at JT Group, said: “JT’s vision is to become the partner of choice for global telecoms innovation. As an example of what this means we are currently partnering with UTStarcom to host their European R & D function in our new facility known as JT Lab and so making use of the point-to-point FTTH network which we are currently rolling out in Jersey.”

“IPTV forms another part of this and will clearly be enabled further with next generation of fibre broadband services. That’s why given our FFTH project we are delighted to now become members of the OIPF in order to be help contribute to its successful development and bring these exciting new products and services to our home market.”

Dr Nilo Mitra, OIPF president, announced the new members at the Forum’s 22nd plenary meeting in Montreal, hosted by Rogers Communications, Canada.

“Each of these major players is a leader in its own way, with innovation in STB technology, with FTTH deployment and as a major operator in the Middle East region respectively. Having them on board reflects the growing understanding within the industry of the importance of Open Standards for a global mass market for IP and connected TVs,” he said.

“These new members come at a critical time for the OIPF, as we plan the first trial deployments of OIPF technology in live networks. These trials follow the Forum’s latest successful lab trial, sponsored by Orange France Telecom, which concluded in May,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service