SBC says the new service will enable a next-generation digital video entertainment experience not previously realized in the mass market, and will take full advantage of the company's expanding two-way broadband network to offer new, innovative services beyond today's existing broadcast-oriented digital TV networks. The IPTV service will not be limited to use by STBs, but will also be accessable to other devices within the home, such as PCs, handhelds, and other IP-enabled consumer products, according to SBC.
SBC says it has been testing an IP-based television service built on the Microsoft TV IPTV Edition platform since June. Consumer field trials will begin in mid-2005, and full commercial availability is slated for late 2005.
Microsoft
announced its IPTV Edition platform last year, describing it as "a complete end-to-end solution spanning a range from video management and delivery to consumer TV experiences." Within a month, Swisscom
announced that it would begin trials of Microsoft's IPTV Platform in Switzerland. Several STBs supporting IPTV were
announced in September at the International Broadcasters' Convention in Amsterdam.
SBC hasn't revealed whose STB it plans to deploy.
The Microsoft TV IPTV Edition platform boasts "next-generation" features such as instant channel changing, multimedia programming guides with integrated video, multiple picture-in-picture capability on standard TV sets, video recording (DVR), and video on demand (VOD). The platform is also said to provide a comprehensive security system including subscriber and end-to-end
digital rights management (DRM) technology to protect the content across multiple devices.
SBC expects to begin construction early next year of Project Lightspeed, an initiative to deploy fiber closer to customer locations in order to enable higher speed delivery of a growing list of next-generation, "feature rich" IP-based services including including IP-TV, VoIP, and "ultra-fast" Internet access. In order to optimize bandwidth utilization, SBC says it will use a switched video distribution system that only streams content requested by the customer, rather than broadcasting all channels to everyone simultaneously.
SBC hopes to connect Project Lightspeed to 18 million households by the end of 2007, it says.
Detailed information about
Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software and services is available on Microsoft's website. The "IPTV Solutions from Microsoft TV" data sheet is available
here (3MB PDF file).
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