CES: 2Wire provides sneak peak at SBC service

LAS VEGAS--2Wire at the Consumer Electronics Show this week is peeling back the covers on the bundled package of voice, data and video that SBC expects to begin testing later this year.

The service, to be branded UVerse, revolves around 2Wire’s MediaPortal, which acts as a multi-TV set-top box, personal video recorder, audio compiler, e-mail device, Internet access gateway and router. Like other set-tops, MediaPortal can translate and display multimodal information using the existing coax connection. However, the device also can display two separate high-definition streams as well as multiple standard definition channels.

"We think the best economic model revolves around two TVs," said Brian Sugar, vice president of marketing for 2Wire.

The service that SBC will roll out, which is being officially unveiled by SBC Chairman Ed Whitacre in a keynote here today, also will include several links to the telco’s business partners including MovieLink and Yahoo! Using Movielink, for example, users will be able to download films from the Movielink library to the set-top. Movie availability after the download will depend on the connection speed.

"It will start right away if you’re on the 3 Mb/s connection or you’ve been passed by Project Lightspeed," Sugar said. "If you’re on the 1.5 Mb/s connection, you’ll have to wait 30-35 minutes."