United Arab Emirates-based telecoms company Etisalat has announced it has nearly completed its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network covering the whole of the country’s capital Abu Dhabi. The project, known as eLite, is slated for completion at the start of the third quarter of 2009 and will be expanded to Dubai and Sharjah in the near future. The network will provide high definition IPTV services, both broadcast and on-demand, online gaming and other new services such as e-education, online health check-ups, video conferencing and remote infrastructure management. The company has reported that it has already connected over 300,000 homes to the eLite network since 2008, and aims to connect the entire country by the end of 2011, including 1.4 million homes and offices.
In a separate story, Etisalat has selected Endavo Media to provide its Internet TV Platform to broadcasters to promote their content and allow customers to watch a variety of online video content whenever they choose. ‘Etisalat has always endeavored to leverage technology and convergence to provide a unique experience and unlimited reach to its customers. Endavo’s innovative Internet TV Platform combined with Etisalat’s robust global network will bring about a paradigm shift in the way broadcasters in this region showcase content and customers view content, thereby creating new customer segments of the future – the online customer, the mobile customer and the interactive customer,’ said Khalifa al Shamsi, Etisalat’s vice president of marketing.