SBC's $4bn IPTV project is behind schedule
SBC Communications' $4bn deployment of internet protocol television (IPTV) is running four months behind schedule. SBC's Project Lightspeed aims to deliver IP-based video, voice and high-speed internet services to 18m households across 13 US states by the end of 2007. SBC's IPTV chief Randall Stephenson told USA Today if he missed that target it would only be by "by one or two quarters".
Asked whether SBC's strategy of delivering a 'triple-play' of video services, broadband internet and voice communications down the same telephone was the right choice, Stephenson said: "If I bet wrong, I didn't break the future of this business. For a company of this size, $4bn is very little money. If I bet wrong, it's not much money for us to burn."
SBC executive Jeff Weber conceded that one of the main issues in rolling out an IPTV service was scaling. Numerous trials and small-scale consumer launches have demonstrated that IPTV works, but whether it can cope with millions of viewers at once is another thing.
"Scaling is clearly an issue. And anybody who tells you otherwise isn't just dumb — they're lying," said Weber.
In June SBC said its IPTV deployment was on track.
Meanwhile, SBC said it had awarded contracts to build its IPTV set-top boxes to Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola. Financial terms were not disclosed.
SBC said the contracts would give each company an equal market opportunity, and continue to the end of 2008.
"This is a major technology milestone for IPTV," said Lea Ann Champion, senior executive vice president, SBC IP Operations and Services. "A number of different technology components have come together to ensure the set-top boxes can efficiently support the features and functionality we plan to deliver to our customers."
The set-top boxes—which will contain personal video recorders—will support both MPEG4 and VC1 compression technologies, and will operate the new Microsoft IPTV Edition software.
"The planned set-top boxes will offer many outstanding capabilities and we can add even more features in the future by upgrading the software in the boxes remotely," said Champion.
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