Etisalat Carrier and Wholesale Services and Telecom Italia Sparkle announced yesterday their intent to partner to extend video transport services availability across the globe benefitting their customers spread over a wider geographic reach.

The partnership will combine the strengths of TI Sparkle's global network focused in Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia Regions, with Etisalat's leading network and leading position in the UAE, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) area and the Middle Eastern region.

As part of the agreement, TI Sparkle and Etisalat will pool their market capabilities and networks to offer services for the transmission of media events including fibre, teleport and satellite services, providing support for all the latest video formats and encoding standards, playout and head end capabilities, streaming and distribution to multichannel integrated platform (DTT, DTH, CDN).

TI Sparkle can offer global turn-key broadcasting services managing all aspects of the video marketplace by leveraging its global network and commercial presence together with a strong partnership with Persidera, a Telecom Italia Group subsidiary and leading independent TV broadcast network operator in Italy as well as reference supplier of playout, head-end and diffusion services for national and international TV players.

"We are very pleased to be in partnership with Etisalat as this is the type of alliance we are looking for to strengthen our presence on the global video services market," said Alessandro Talotta, CEO of TI Sparkle.

"We look forward to the results of our collaboration with TI Sparkle. The interconnection of our companies' networks and capabilities will greatly benefit our customers requiring global solutions," commented Ali Amiri, Executive Vice President, Carrier and Wholesale Services, Etisalat.
Source: WAM