caller ID

Nebraska-based telco, Allo Communications, said Wednesday that it has teamed with 180Squared, a company best known for providing software and integration services for Microsoft's Mediaroom IPTV platform, to launch a Mediaroom-based IPTV service to its customers in western Nebraska (note: last year, Microsoft launched virtualization support for Mediaroom, in a bid to make the platform more cost-effective for smaller operators such as Allo to deploy--see the article published on itvt.com, May 28th, 2009). The service, which is delivered over a fiber network, offers among other things 74 HD channels, remote DVR management, on-screen caller-ID and integration with Allo's voice and Internet services.

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Cedar Point Communications, a company best known for its VoIP switching technologies, on Wednesday unveiled a suite of "visual communications applications" for cable operators and network service providers, that it says will optimize subscriber control over telecommunications functionalities on the TV and other endpoints.

The [itvt] editorial team will be on the road this week and next, so we will be covering most stories in round-up/summary form, and we anticipate that there will be some additional interruptions of our regular news publishing schedule beyond that. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers.

Verizon announced last week that it has launched a Caller ID on TV application on its FiOS TV platform (note: the company comes relatively late to the caller ID on TV game: other pay-TV operators that offer such applications include AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, DirecTV, DISH Network, Rogers and Time Warner Cable). The service, which is initially available to FiOS TV subscribers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Texas, is offered at no extra charge. It presents subscribers with information on incoming calls that appears for several seconds in the corner of their TV screen: subscribers can then decide whether they want to pause the program they are watching and answer the call, or continue watching TV and let the call go to their voicemail.

AT&T on Tuesday announced the launch of two free interactive TV applications on its Microsoft Mediaroom powered IPTV platform, U-verse TV: Offers On Demand, an app that allows customers to redeem a coupon code on-screen for discounts on movie rentals; and Caller ID on TV. The launch of the new apps brings the number of free apps that have been rolled out on U-verse TV, since its initial launch, to 20--with 12 of those apps having been launched this year alone. "These apps make U-verse services even more useful and interactive for our customers, and that's exactly what every app should do," Jeff Weber, VP of video services for AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, said in a prepared statement.

Canadian cable MSO, Rogers Communications, last week announced the launch of "TV Call Display," a TV-based caller ID service that is available at no extra charge to customers who subscribe to its phone and TV services. The service has launched in Ontario and is slated to roll out to all eligible customers in a phased approach over the coming months. "With TV Call Display customers who have both Rogers Digital TV and Rogers Home Phone have greater control and can customize their TV Call Display pop-up for the ultimate in convenience," Fil Giulione, Rogers' VP of Internet and home phone product management, said in a prepared statement.

Comcast said Tuesday that it has launched its Universal Caller ID service to its triple-play customers in Michigan (note: other markets in which the MSO has recently launched the service include Colorado, Oregon and Southwest Washington). The service, which is offered at no extra charge, displays the name and phone number associated with an incoming call on a pop-up banner on the TV or computer screen: the customer can then either answer the phone or press "exit" to go back to the TV show they were watching or the online activity they were involved in before the phone rang.

Comcast announced last week that it has launched its Universal Caller ID service to its Colorado triple-play customers. The service, which is offered at no extra charge, displays the name and phone number associated with an incoming call on a pop-up banner on the TV or computer screen: the customer can then either answer the phone or press "exit" to go back to the TV show they were watching or the online activity they were involved in before the phone rang. The interactive TV implementation of the service will activate automatically, Comcast says, so that incoming caller information will appear on customers' television sets as soon as the service becomes available to their home; customers can download the PC version of the service, meanwhile, at comcast.net/callerid.

Integra5, a Massachusetts-based company that specializes in technologies for converged services, says that Chilean cable operator, VTR Global Com, has deployed its flagship i5 Converged Services Platform (CSP) to power a market-wide roll-out of TV- and PC-based caller-ID services. The first phase of the deployment sees VTR launching the services to around 50,000 subscribers throughout Chile. VTR, which is owned by Liberty Global and which has around 1.1 million subscribers, is combining Integra 5's TV- and PC-based caller-ID apps with phone caller-ID to create a packaged offering called "Mira Quien Llama" ("Look Who's Calling"). After a 60-day promotional period, the package will be offered to subscribers of VTR's digital voice, video and phone services for $4.00 per month.