This year's awards will again take place during a river cruise through Paris on the Bateau Diamant

As the clock ticks down to the Broadband InfoVision Awards ceremony, to be held in Paris in two months’ time, the time has come to deliver previews of the different awards categories and their shortlisted entries. We start at the beginning with Category One – Best New Service.

Etisalat, based in the United Arab Emirates, has been shortlisted for Best New Service for its over-the-top (OTT) TV service ‘OnWeb/OnWeb+’. The service has been in development for two years, and is being made available not only in Etisalat’s domestic market but also in other countries in the Middle East region, both on a retail and wholesale basis.

The service is based on an online video delivery platform licensed from US firm Endavo Media and utilises content protection from Verimatrix, whilst a partnership formed with Internap, a US provider of Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, will see the latter establish a presence not only in the UAE but also in other countries in the region, in line with Etisalat’s objectives of becoming a regional content and TV service provider.

Etisalat has also carefully selected a number of connected devices which will work with the OnWeb/OnWeb+ service, including LG Smart 3D TVs, LG Smart Boxes, Android devices, iOS devices, Roku, Boxee, AirTies JS, PCs and Softathome devices. The telco currently has over 40 different content partners signed up for the service, and has received expressions of interest for the wholesale service from a number of telcos in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Sudan, Bahrain and Indonesia.

In November of last year, Malaysia’s YTL Communications launched its advanced, nationwide and convergent 4G network, which has subsequently garnered it a place on the Broadband InfoVision Awards shortlist for Best New Service. Backed by the financial strength of the YTL Group, the company achieved a nationwide footprint at launch covering more than 65 per cent of the Malaysian population, using an internet-compatible open platform to enable rapid and continuous innovation, and a cutting edge architecture that brings together mobile broadband, mobile telephony (voice and SMS) and cloud-based services.

The network is estimated to be 3-5 times faster than previous generation 3G networks, and enables users to access the network through a ‘Yes ID’ rather than a sim card. Multiple devices are able to log on to the network using the same Yes ID, which has a Malaysian mobile number associated with it, thus enabling calls and text messages to be routed concurrently to all devices signed in using the same ID.

YTL Communications also plans to launch a hybrid IP and DTT television service in 2012, using the 4G mobile network as a foundation, and delivering a converged (internet and broadcast) TV service that will look to deliver not just entertainment but also educational content, and is expected to create new economic growth opportunities.

Finally in this category, Huawei has been shortlisted for its IMS-based convergent conferencing service, which seeks to address a booming hosted conferencing market recently predicted in a Wainhouse study to reach $ 6.35bn by 2014.

Huawei’s solution is designed as a carrier-grade convergent service which supports voice, data collaboration, SD and HD video and telepresence meeting services. It is interoperable between different terminals, networks and platforms, and uses Huawei-patented technology such as Video Motion Enhancement (VME) to reduce bandwidth demands, cutting bandwidth requirements by as much as 50 per cent.

The Broadband InfoVision Awards will be held in Paris on September 27th during a Gala Dinner Presentation aboard a river cruise on the Seine, travelling through the heart of the French capital. For more information and to register, please click here