Redback wins triple-play deal

A new European joint venture, led by French broadband carrier Completel and electronics retailer Darty, is rolling out Triple Play services in 15 European countries, using Redback Networks’ multi-service edge routers, the company announced this week.

The announcement was one in a recent spate of customer initiatives announced by Redback including a joint development agreement with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute of Korea, a private-public partnership in research to advance communications and information technologies. In addition, Redback announced the winning the second phase of a large carrier deployment by Guangdong Telecom in China and a customer win in the U.K., where the Opal Telecom subsidiary of The Carphone Warehouse is using Redback’s SmartEdge products to deliver free broadband service for up to two million customers.

Completel has an addressable market of 7 million subscribers and will manage the network, using Redback’s SmartEdge systems. Darty will market the new triple-play services through its 200-plus retail stores and an online presence.

The two European deals complement Redback’s existing efforts in that market, including BT’s 21^st Century Network, KPN’s IPTV network in Belgium, and other deals in France and Germany, said Marco Wanders, chief marketing officer.

“U.K. is our lead market in Europe, with BT 21CN and BT Wholesale, CP Warehouse and Orange,” he said. By volume, however, France is now Redback’s largest market worldwide, after the U.S. and China, he said.

The ETRI joint development deal with allow Redback to “leverage our technology and fine-tune our products for Korean markets,” he said. “It will allow us to sell our products into parallel markets such as government, business and the military. ETRI’s goal is to grow the IT infrastructure and the GDP of Korea.”