Canadian telco tabs Motorola DSL set-top

(Telephony) Canadian telco Aliant Telecom is the first commercial user of Motorola's DSL-based Streamaster 5000 digital set-top box. A Bell Canada affiliate, Aliant has about 2,050 video customers out of a universe of 40,000 subscribers in the Atlantic Canada region.

The interactive video offering is fed from a headend in Saint John, New Brunswick, where signals from a variety of local and distant sources are received, aggregated and processed using Cisco Systems' video networking system. The signals are then delivered using iMagicTV's software to subscribers via a DSLAM to the Streamaster 5000.

"A key thing for us is that we offer local content per city," said Anthony Archibald, product advisor for Aliant Telecom's VibeVision interactive TV service. "That was very powerful for us just to be able to differentiate between regions."

The VibeVision suite of services – available in Halifax, Saint John and Moncton -- are "a little more like (direct broadcast) satellite (than traditional cable TV) because you have your on-screen guide," Archibald said. "We also offer a Web product where you can browse the Internet on television through the set-top. We also give every customer an e-mail account."

Customers who want to receive high-speed data through the DSL connection are given DSL modems, Archibald said, adding that this capability could be incorporated into the set-top box.

"We are advancing our product as we go and truly keeping it on the cutting edge, or, what we like to call the bleeding edge of the new technology," he said. "We're definitely not at the last stage of the product."