Today, Microsoft launched its Mediaroom with virtualization, which it said was the telecommunications industry’s first virtualization platform for IPTV service providers.

Microsoft said that Mediaroom with virtualization can deliver up to a six-fold reduction in the number of physical servers required to support a full-featured IPTV service, significantly reducing hardware and management costs and speeding time to market for Mediaroom customers by up to three weeks.

With virtualization support, Microsoft said it’s possible to deploy and operate a full Mediaroom-powered TV service for up to 30,000 subscriber homes per market using fewer than 10 physical servers. Even for deployments of greater than 30,000 subscriber homes, a mix of virtualized and dedicated servers can still provide efficiency benefits.

“Reservation Telephone Cooperative prides itself on delivering a full range of advanced voice, data and TV services to our highly distributed community of just under 10,000 customers in North Dakota,” said Royce Aslakson, CEO of RTC. “By adding virtualization support, Microsoft Mediaroom is making the promise of converged entertainment services approachable without the cost and compromise inherent in more piecemeal solutions. The opportunity to sprint ahead of traditional TV services is now within our reach.”