Etisalat to launch eLife upgrade in January

posted on 31/10/2012: 510 views

Etisalat is set to launch a redesigned and upgraded eLife TV service based on the advanced Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) platform to users in the UAE from January 2013, said a top official.

"eLife 2.0 has lot of enhancements. It has an advanced parental control for children. Each kid can have a separate control set by parents and they cannot watch anything beyond that. Even movies, for example, if the movie rating is above the set rating, the kid will not be able to watch,” Rashid Majid Al Abbar, Vice-President of Home Products Marketing for etisalat, told Gulf News on the sidelines of the TV Connect Middle East and North Africa Forum 2012.

He said that UAE will be the first in the region to have "Arabic user interface.”

Right now elife offers English as the main user interface.

Users will be able to select their "preferred language in the settings and this need to be done only once.

Another main feature on eLife TV 2.0 is Start-over-TV. If a user is going to watch a live movie or a cricket match which is half-way through, he can watch the entire live programme right from the beginning at a press of the button on the remote,” Al Abbar said.

This is a natural upgrade and users will be informed about it. They only need to restart their set-top-box again. This upgrade service is "free of cost,” he said.

Right now, etisalat has 375 live channels, more than 700 video-on-demand and 55 high-definition channels, which is highest in the region for IPTV service.

"Demand is growing as more people are on the move and as a telco operator, it is our duty to cater to this space,” he said.

Meanwhile, the telco operator is awaiting final approval for content rights from Apple to show its eLife programmes on iPad and iPhone.

"Most probably we will be launching it in January on iPad and all computers. We are waiting for the approval and it should be through in the next two months,” Al Abbar said.

Initially, etisalat will be launching it on WiFi and 3G networks in January and later on 4G LTE network.

Currently eLife is only offered on fixed home broadband through FTTH service.

"Our next phase will be on Android tablets and smartphones,” he said.

Users will be able to watch 40 live channels on an iPad with the same look and feel as on television. – Gulf News

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