T-Online picks Alcatel and Microsoft for IPTV trial

Hungary’s largest Internet access provider T-Online Hungary, a unit of Deutsche Telekom-controlled Magyar Telekom, has selected Alcatel and Microsoft TV as joint suppliers for its internet protocol television (IPTV) pilot. The project is scheduled to take place in three stages, including a laboratory trial, two field trials and a consumer pilot trial. The company says that phase one was completed at the end of January 2006, while the first field trial, which included 18 broadcast TV channels, VOD and personal video recorder (PVR) tests was successfully concluded, paving the way for a second extended field trial involving 500 users. The third test phase is scheduled to begin in the summer.