European consumer electronics maker Thomson announced it had formed the Thomson-Inventel Advanced Product Development Group to reinforce and accelerate the development of broadband service delivery platforms and home networking solutions to its network operator and Internet Service Provider client base.

As networking possibilities expand, Thomson said network operators need an increasingly broad and sophisticated range of consumer equipment to gain and hold subscribers, and complement their value-added services to expand revenues. The Thomson-Inventel Advanced Product Development Group will develop broadband service delivery products and solutions for subsequent industrialization and commercialization by the Telecom and Home Networking Business Units of the company.

The group will be lead by Eric Carreel, co-founder of Inventel, and will consolidate all the necessary expertise around residential gateway, home networking and other broadband applications technologies within the company.

"The formation of the Thomson-Inventel Advanced Product Development Group will reinforce Thomson's reputation as a leader in innovative technologies and creative product development and significantly enhance our ability to serve our network operator and ISP client base," stated Bruno Fabre, vice president, Telecoms at Thomson. Bringing together these product innovation skills will also enable us to sharpen our competitive edge and better tap the potential of this rapidly growing market," he added.