OpenTV and JacobsRimell Team On Broadband Cable ITV Solution

Business Wire, Sept 12, 2002

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 12, 2002

Provisioning Solution to Accelerate Deployment of Interactive Television

OpenTV (NASDAQ and Euronext Amsterdam: OPTV), the world's leading interactive television company, and JacobsRimell, a leading provider of online customer provisioning, self-activation and service assurance software for cable, mobile and telecommunications network and service providers, today announced an alliance to provide an integrated back office infrastructure to accelerate the provisioning and deployment of interactive television services offered by broadband operators.

The combined solution will allow operators to reuse a common infrastructure, which they have built to support the "triple play" of voice, data and television among their customers, for the deployment of interactive TV services. "Working with JacobsRimell, we believe we can reduce the complexity of deploying new interactive television services for both existing and new OpenTV broadband customers," said OpenTV's chief technology officer, Vincent Dureau.

The companies have integrated their respective technologies - JacobsRimell's APS(TM) service management product and Open TV's interactive TV middleware, network and enterprise solutions - to support the general flow-through provisioning and self-provisioning of advanced interactive television services to OpenTV's broadband customers.

The provisioning solution enables network operators to easily configure and deploy value-added broadband applications and services, such as e-mail, Internet access, text messaging, enhanced TV, video-on-demand, T-commerce and subscription games. It allows network operators to give access to and manage OpenTV-enabled interactive services on an individual family member basis, within each account, while self-provisioning lets subscribers order, activate and personalize interactive services directly through their own television sets.

"We have focused from the outset on supporting the self-provisioning of the broadband-variant of OpenTV-based interactive television services -- combined with full integration with cable network IP infrastructure and other PC-based high-speed data products," said Henry Barton, CTO Broadband at JacobsRimell. "Our partnership with OpenTV will help two-way broadband operators take advantage of OpenTV's powerful middleware and accelerate a significantly richer range of services, while reducing the complexity of managing those services."

This combined solution significantly reduces the cost and complexity of integrating with legacy customer relationship management (CRM) and business support systems (BSS) while allowing a much more customer-friendly approach to service bundling and packaging.

JacobsRimell will demonstrate the self-provisioning of EuroDOCSIS digital set-top boxes running OpenTV core software at the OpenTV stand at this year's IBC 2002 exhibition in Amsterdam.

About JacobsRimell

JacobsRimell is a leading provider of online customer provisioning, self-activation and service assurance software for cable, mobile and telecommunications network and service providers. Their APS package is the world's first designed-for-purpose service database and uses JacobsRimell's patented directory technology to rapidly drive revenue generation, unify services and reduce costs. JacobsRimell's Service Assurance Systems allow customers to easily monitor system delivery capability, police and define policy and rules. Customers already using this technology include Cable & Wireless, NTL and Telstra. JacobsRimell's wholesale Internet service-delivery package has been used by major global service providers for the roll out of virtual ISP platforms in the UK, US, Japan. The company's solutions have to date been deployed in 13 countries. JacobsRimell's corporate headquarters are in London. For more information, visit www.jacobsrimell.com

About OpenTV

The world's leading interactive television company, OpenTV powers more than 27 million set-top boxes worldwide. The company provides a comprehensive suite of iTV solutions including operating middleware, web browser software, interactive applications, content creation tools, professional support services, and strategic consulting. OpenTV is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with regional offices throughout the United States, Europe and Asia/Pacific. For more information please visit www.opentv.com.