UTStarcom (UTSI) announced that China Netcom has signed a contract for the deployment of UTStarcom's RollingStream end-to-end IPTV solution in Harbin.

This deal represents the single largest IPTV capacity deployment in China to date.

The contract is based on a commercial trial that was launched in May 2005. The initial deployment had a capacity of 100,000 concurrent media streams, covering the major metropolitan areas of the city.

Currently, the service offers channels of live broadcast television with "time-shifting" capabilities, 48-hour TV-on-demand, and approximate 5,600 hours of video-on-demand.

At the same time, there are value-added services, such as on-line weather report, information browsing, and searching services available in the service package as well. The service has accumulated approximately 53,000 subscribers to date.

UTStarcom has also announced commercial contracts in Shanghai and Fuzhou and Quanzhou in the Fujian Province, with an initial combined capacity of over 50,000 media streams.