Ericsson to offer multimedia services in Mideast

Dubai: Ericsson said it plans to begin offering multimedia capabilities, designed to be customer centric, to operators in the Middle East and Asia.

Televisionary, a campaign by Ericsson, caters to the multimedia needs of the new digital generation. Easy ways of sending videos across the world and across devices, capturing high-definition video from the television on a mobile, or obtaining videos of artists by taking a picture of their poster are some of the new needs of the media savvy generation.

From mobiles and laptops, to PDAs and gaming devices, there is an increasing demand for personalisation. The company's initiative is to offer capabilities that provide personalised media content and to design devices that support them.

"We all used to think that IP stood for Internet Protocol [and in a technical sense it does], but a truer reflection would be to think Interactive and Personalised," said Jeremy Foster, marketing director, marketing and strategy, Ericsson.

Many mobile services are already available in the UAE but with varying degrees of operability. Mobile television is currently struggling due to network capacity and infrastructure efficiency. Often, the devices don't support the services provided by the telecom operators or the users are unaware of their availability.

"The telecom operator's backend systems are responsible for providing solutions that can support the services by companies providing mobile communications technology," said Lars Hamre, vice-president of multimedia and system integration at Ericsson.

Ericsson's top officials think that in three-four years, the growth in the region will equal mature telecom markets.

The company is also considering providing tailored advertisements.