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SBC Scaling IPTV for Full Launch

SBC Communications Inc. hopes to launch its IPTV service beyond San Antonio in late second-quarter 2006, senior vice president and chief technology officer John Stankey said during a UBS Warburg LLC analysts� conference.

While initial testing in forty homes has been completed, Stankey said, SBC is waiting on several product issues to be resolved before heading to a full rollout. �There is one more release of software from Microsoft,� he added, � which will give us the full feature set,� including HDTV services.

SBC is also waiting for its two chip vendors, STMicroelectronics and Sigma Systems Canada Inc., to complete system-on-a-chip-set design and integrate the technology with set-top vendors Scientific-Atlanta Inc. and Motorola Inc.

Once that�s done, �we�ll get a far better price point than our cable competitors,� Stankey said. Those set-tops are testing the chip sets and software stacks in the labs. SBC is also working on getting its operational-support systems scaled for launch, he added.

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