Kuala Lumpur – Astro and TIME dotCom Berhad (TIME) have entered into a partnership to jointly bring TV and broadband services to its customers. CEO of Astro, Dato’ Rohana Rozhan and CEO of TIME, Afzal Abdul Rahim announced the partnership to leverage on each others’ strengths to bring true digital connectivity and an enhanced entertainment experience. Rohana said, “Since the launch of Astro B.yond in December 2009, we have received huge demand for our high definition (HD) and Personal Video Recording (PVR) services. Our Astro B.yond services are immediately available to all customers residing in single dwelling units (SDU’s) and progressively for those in multiple dwelling units (MDU’s). We have been conducting IP delivery trials, with very positive outcomes. TIME is a partner of choice given their immediate capability to provide 100Mbps to these MDUs, which enables us to deliver an unrivalled value proposition encompassing the very best of Astro B.yond and high speed broadband services, to our increasingly discerning customers. Under this agreement, these services will be made available to 167,000 homes in 730 MDU’s in the Klang Valley and Penang progressively within the next 12 months.” All this is made possible as the Astro B.yond box is in essence a ‘tri-brid’ set top box, which operates in a Direct to Home (DTH) satellite mode, pure IPTV mode as well as DTH and IPTV hybrid mode. Astro’s ‘tri-brid’ set top box also enables different Video-On-Demand (VOD) capabilities such as push, pull, or progressive downloads of content, based on the mode selected and relative speed of the underlying network. Customers are then able to view videos in real-time upon request, or alternatively, download video content to a device such as a PVR for later viewing. Astro customers who sign up for the Astro IPTV service under this agreement with TIME will therefore have 100Mbps bandwidth at their disposal, to enjoy all Astro B.yond services such as HD, PVR, VOD in multi-rooms, and still have spare bandwidth to support connected devices such as laptops, mobile phones and game consoles on WIFI. This partnership between Astro and TIME enables Astro to provide its customers the best value possible – with the unbeatable combination of TV, HD, PVR, VOD, music and high speed broadband. With this proposition, customers in Malaysia can expect a transformation of their TV viewing and the home internet usage experience, enjoying the best of a converging media world.