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.
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.