Algérie Telecom launches IPTV service

Algerian telco Algérie Télécom has launched an IPTV service, SAFIR, using technology from France’s Netgem.

The service will offer about 60 channels accessible via a Netgem TV decoder. Algérie Télécom plans to serve six million households across the country with high-speed broadband services by 2013 via a fibre-to-the-home network. The company’s CEO, Moussa Ben-Hamadi, has said that the IPTV service will be key to deployment of FTTH, an initiative that is being pushed by the Algerian government.

The SAFIR IPTV service is being deployed by systems integrator SPEC-COM Algérie.