Satellite services provider SES Americom signed a multi-year agreement to source IPTV set-top boxes from Amino.

The deal is not exclusive; SES Americom fully intends to approve other STBs for the IPTV delivery system it is developing, called IP-Prime.

Amino will provide its AmiNET130 set-top box, which is capable of handling both standard and high definition video, in the MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 or AVC/H.264 formats.

IP-Prime is a centralized IPTV distribution service designed to help rural telephone companies easily upgrade to IPTV service. SES Americom said rural telephone companies (which it declined to identify) in three cities are in advanced trials of IP-Prime.

At the beginning of the year, BellSouth agreed to trial the system (see story), but it would be a bit of a stretch to call BellSouth a "rural" telephone company.