MTN plots IPTV launch by 2013/14

MTN South Africa expects to launch a commercial IPTV service by late-2013/early-2014 as it looks to expand its existing product suite, TechCentral reports. Managing director Karel Pienaar commented: ‘If you look at the evolving of MTN into a services company, content will be a key component of that. We have been experimenting for a long time with IPTV and content in all its forms and shapes. We have a new platform where we are doing limited customer trials … MTN is absolutely there, but it’s not something you rush into. We are experimenting with dozens of different options. Depending on how successful the trials are, we would like to bring IPTV to market this year already’. Speaking last week at a demonstration which saw high-definition (HD) video being streamed over the company’s 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, Pienaar suggested that customers would pay only for the content they purchased and not the data that was used to download or stream it. MTN is already in discussions with potential content providers, he added.