[opendtv] News: SBC Tunes Into IP-Based TV
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 08:54:50 -0500
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118584,00.asp
SBC Tunes Into IP-Based TV
Company is developing a fiber network that will deliver TV and data to homes.
Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
Friday, November 12, 2004
SBC Communications plans to offer IP (Internet Protocol) TV over a
fiber-based network by the end of next year, the carrier says.
The fiber network will reach 18 million potential customers by the
end of 2007 and will be able to deliver to a household four
simultaneous streams of TV, including high-definition TV, in addition
to IP-based data and voice services, the company says.
Like the other major U.S. telecommunications carriers, SBC aims to
compete against a growing menu of services from cable operators by
bringing fiber closer to homes and small businesses, thereby
dramatically boosting network capacity. Verizon Communications
earlier this year started rolling out a commercial FTTP
(fiber-to-the-premise) service that brings fiber in to customers'
homes.
SBC's rollout, called "Project Lightspeed," has an aggressive goal:
Within five years, SBC hopes to be the number 2 video provider in
areas where it has fiber, says Lea Ann Champion, senior executive
vice president of IP operations and services, in a conference call
this week. It plans to leapfrog traditional cable services with
features such as interactive guides and multiple camera angles,
according to SBC.
Saving Time and Money
SBC plans to save time and money by laying fiber in most cases only
to neighborhood nodes. This FTTN (fiber to the node) strategy will
allow the carrier to roll out its service in one-fourth the time and
on one-fifth the capital expense that would have been required to
bring fiber all the way to homes, Champion says. It will use FTTP in
new housing developments as well as in multiple tenant dwellings and
some areas where the network needs to be rehabilitated, she says. The
rollout will cost about $4 billion, coming in at the low end of an
earlier estimate that ranged up to a possible $6 billion, Champion
says.
FTTN will deliver most of the capabilities of FTTP, according to SBC.
It will bring fiber to a node less than 5000 feet from homes and use
advanced forms of DSL and data compression to maximize the capacity
of the remaining copper lines, delivering 20 megabits per second to
25 mbps of bandwidth downstream. FTTP can offer as much as 39 mbps,
according to SBC's presentation.
FTTN will make up most of the deployment, with 17 million homes
reached via that technology vs. 1 million reached with FTTP, SBC
says. Lab and field trials are already under way and construction is
set to begin in the first quarter of 2005, the company says.
SBC's primary operating areas are California, Nevada, Texas,
Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois,
Indiana, Wisconsin, and Connecticut.
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