Comverse Seeking Open Interactive Standard

TV Gate, the interactive TV division of Israel-based Comverse Technology Inc., is working with other companies to come up with a global standard for delivery of third-party applications, such as messaging, in a two-way infrastructure.

The TVXML Forum, launched at Cable 2002, is intended to help transform the television set from the "passive entertainment center" to the "interactive communication center" of the household with messaging and telephony, said Comverse TV Gate Vice President of Product Management and Strategic Marketing Ezra Mizrahi.

TV Gate hopes to leverage Comverse's core strength in messaging technologies to bring interactive features including messaging and gaming to television.

TV Gate also said it is collaborating with middleware provider Liberate Technologies to enable new communications services on the Liberate TV Platform. The new Liberate Message Platform provides the infrastructure for the development of new applications.

"SMS {Short Messaging Services) over cable is a perfect fit, providing for instant two-way communication across a range of devices," said David Limp, Liberate' s chief strategy officer.

Mizrahi said more collaboration announcements will come soon.