SBC Readies Integrated Entertainment

A joint venture between SBC Communications and set-top box vendor 2Wire this year will offer TV, video on demand, digital video recording, and Internet content over DSL and satellite service, the carrier announced this week.

A set-top box from the joint venture, SBC Media Solutions, will take DSL content and services now available only on the PC and bring them to the TV and home stereo. Satellite TV services already available from EchoStar Communications' Dish Network will come through the same set-top box. The box will include both EchoStar's proprietary technology for TV and 2Wire technology for DSL services, says Lee Culver, executive director of broadband applications at SBC. The venture will jointly own any intellectual property that is developed in the creation of the set-top box and services, he says.

Subscribers will be able to watch satellite TV programming, downloaded movies and prerecorded shows on their TVs, view and share photos, and listen to music on demand from Yahoo Launchcast Internet Radio, all via the same interface, Culver says. A remote control with a QWERTY keyboard will come with the set-top box.

Services that are now provided over DSL, such as movies and music on demand, can be sent to the set-top box via Wi-Fi and from the set-top box to the TV and stereo over standard analog and digital connections, he says. Users will also be able to stream their own content from the PC to the TV and stereo via the set-top box.

Competition is heating up between DSL providers and cable operators to deliver a broad range of content and services to home users, says Matt Davis, a broadband analyst at Yankee Group. SBC has been more successful than other carriers in setting up a tight relationship with its satellite partner, EchoStar, which includes a single bill and customer-service contact number, he says. The service it is developing with 2Wire will further integrate existing services that SBC and its partners already provide, before future services arrive with the rollout of fiber networks, Davis says.

"It's definitely a time-to-market play. Ultimately, a percentage of those customers may end up making a transition to fiber once it becomes available," Davis says.

More to Come

The SBC Media Solutions service, scheduled for mid-2005, will be a precursor and a complement to similar converged offerings that SBC plans to begin delivering via fiber in the fourth quarter of this year. Its fiber network, Project Lightspeed, is designed to offer much greater capacity than current DSL by bringing fiber into or close to homes. Though Project Lightspeed should reach about 18 million homes by the end of 2007, many homes in SBC's 13-state coverage area will remain out of range of the fiber network, Culver says. SBC has more than 54 million access lines.

The set-top box will come in two models: one designed for standard-definition TV, with a 120GB hard drive, and one for high-definition TV, with a 250GB drive. The 120GB drive will hold about 80 hours of standard-definition TV and the 250GB drive will accommodate about 30 to 40 hours of high-definition programming, Culver says. The company plans to levy a one-time fee for the set-top box and then charge subscribers the standard monthly DSL and satellite TV charges, in addition to per-movie fees for video on demand.

Subscribers also will have remote access from any Internet-connected PC to the photos, music, and other files on their home PCs. That content will be available through the Yahoo SBC Internet portal with password protection, Culver says. That portal will also let subscribers modify their digital video recorder schedules and schedule movie downloads, he adds. In the future, subscribers with Cingular Wireless mobile phone service will be able to program their digital video recording and choose movies via the phone, he says. Cingular is a joint venture of SBC and BellSouth.

SBC also plans to integrate some telephony functions with the set-top box, so subscribers will be able to get caller ID information and voice mail via the TV, Culver says.