Alcatel and Microsoft have signed a global IP Television collaboration agreement aimed at accelerating the availability of IPTV. The two called the deal a “precedent setting” agreement, under which they will developed an integrated IPTV delivery solution that combines Microsoft’s IPTV software and Alcatel hardware.

The sales pitch the two plan to use for the combined Alcatel/Microsoft product line is that an “integrated solution can help IPTV service providers reduce deployment costs and shorten time-to-market for IPTV services as they transition to mass-market deployments of IPTV.”

The agreement between the two envisions a series of what Microsoft and Alcatel called “joint initiatives” that include:

· Developing and customizing new applications to meet the unique needs of different cultures and markets around the world,
· Enhancing application and network resilience for better reliability in large-scale deployments,
· Integration of content, security and digital rights management to ensure secure delivery of high-quality content, to and throughout the home,
· Managing quality of service through intelligent video packet handling, and
· End-to-end integration of management systems for the application platforms and all components of the network including the home network.