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Alcatel filled out another element of its quickly evolving IPTV program with the launch yesterday of a policy management solution that will let carriers personalize their video offerings. Separately, the company announced that Golden Belt Telephone Association, an independent telco based in Rush Center, Kan., has chosen the Alcatel 1677 SL to upgrade its local telephone network and that it has integrated Unlicensed Mobile Access control functionality directly into its Spatial Wireless softswitch and server line.

The 5750 Subscriber Services Controller allows telcos to centrally manage subscribers and services while also giving them the ability to offer more control to users. At the same time, it creates an environment in which carriers will be able to differentiate clearly between their video services and cable/satellite competitors.

Among the key applications the company is focusing on is the ability to offer multiple picture-in-picture windows without requiring consumer electronics vendors to build in additional TV tuners.

"It sort of fosters and feeds this ADD nation that we live in," said Chad Holliday, director of product marketing in the IP division of Alcatel.

In its booth, among the myriad of plasma screens, Alcatel also is demonstrating its latest collaboration with Microsoft TV and showing that entertainment applications in the future will involve a lot more than just channel surfing from the couch. In one demo, the company is showing a TV-based portal on which users can display the most popular channels people are watching at any given time. Called the What's Hot portal, statistics are displayed on the four most popular channels and are constantly updated to reflecting changing viewer patterns.

"We're analyzing the IGMP joins and leaves from the DSLAM and getting rid of the stuff that reflects just people surfing through channels," said Steve West, director of product marketing in the ICE/Fixed Solutions Division of Alcatel.

On the Golden Belt deal, Alcatel believes the sale of its 1677 SL multiservice provisioning platform MSPP to a Midwestern IOC signals the beginning of a wave of smaller telcos entering into the triple-play market. Golden Belt is to deploy the 1677 SL to deliver legacy Sonet services, digital video, high-speed data, gigabit Ethernet, DSL and circuit switched telephony to its 6000 customers, said Bruce Miller, vice president of network strategy and architecture for Alcatel.

Alcatel recently obtained Rural Utility Service (RUS) certification for the MSPP. This enables IOCs to use RUS subsidies to purchase the equipment, Miller explained.

"Operators in smaller markets create momentum for triple-play services, but this class of triple-play network is small compared to the big guys," he said.

The UMA add-on, which is being used by T-Mobile obviates the need for a separate management element in the network. Before developing its own solution, Alcatel worked in partnership with Kineto Wireless to bring mobile/Wi-Fi convergence to its carrier customers, but now Alcatel can offer an all-in-one solution, said Martine Lapierre, chief technology officer of Alcatel's Mobile Communications Group.

T-Mobile has integrated the UMA controller directly into its new Spatial core, one of Alcatel's major customer wins since acquiring the softswitch vendor last year.