French set top software player Netgem has inked a significant deal this week to supply set top middleware running on ZTE hardware to Mexican ISP TotalPlay, to support its fiber to the home (FTTH) IPTV expansion plans. The deal resonates as a significant one with Faultline Online Reporter for two reasons. Firstly, it looks suspiciously to us like ZTE creeping in through the back door to get its name on a product which might actually work – a smart move given its track record in IPTV, particularly in Latin America. Secondly, the deployment is the first time that Netgem has licensed its software on third party set tops – a business transition that more and more traditional hardware manufacturers are…