3 Italia: Mobile TV (DVB-H)

3 Italia asked Accenture to help it differentiate itself in a saturated Italian market, and take advantage of the approaching FIFA World Cup 2006, by providing its customers with compelling new services in the form of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld). In just five months, and exploiting a jointly-developed Wireless Delivery Center, Accenture helped 3 Italia make high-quality, high-speed, multi-access mobile TV a reality.

3 Italia is a mobile media company, a leader in Italy's Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) market, with more than 6 million customers. Its majority shareholder (95.4 percent) is the Hutchison Whampoa Group, a multinational listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. 3 Italia won a UMTS license in Italy in October 2000 and began offering services in March 2003. 3 Italia provides a wide array of multimedia, video communications and Internet services, as well as entertainment, music, information, cinema, sports and mobile TV.

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The Accenture Service Delivery Platform Solution is the foundation for empowering service innovation at 3 Italia, a project which attracted finalist status in the IEC's InfoVision Awards, 2007. "The IEC's InfoVision Awards recognize top contributions in the information and communications technologies (ICT) industry. We're pleased to recognize the joint work of 3 Italia and Accenture as an InfoVision finalist for their Digital Video Broadcasting-Handhelds (DVB-H) Solution," commented IEC President John Janowiak.

In the saturated Italian mobile marketplace, where there are now more mobile phones than there are citizens, market differentiation via value-added services is essential. For 3 Italia, already established as an aggressive and innovative player in the wireless industry, mobile TV presented a key opportunity for providing its customers with new and compelling value-added services.

Accenture helped 3 Italia meet the tight deadline which had been set for launch, overcoming organizational and technical challenges. 3 Italia selected Accenture to lead the implementation project and to develop the H3G Cooperation Platform exploiting the Wireless Delivery Center, a joint initiative between Accenture and 3 Italia for innovative Value Added Services outsourcing.

By teaming with Accenture to exploit the capabilities of Accenture Service Delivery Platform Solution, 3 Italia has made significant progress along its journey towards high performance against an unforgiving deadline. In just five months from initial selection to launch, the Accenture team helped to ensure that subscribers to the mobile TV service would be able to watch all 64 World Cup matches on DVB-H-compliant handsets supplied by LG Electronics and Samsung.