CES: SBC tips hand on home entertainment network

Even as it invests billions to upgrade its networks, SBC Communications has crafted a Home Entertainment Service for the millions of customers who won’t get fiber to their neighborhoods anytime soon. Through a joint venture with 2Wire, and extension of existing agreements with EchoStar Communications and Yahoo!, SBC announced today that it will offer a service that integrates satellite TV programming, digital video recording, video-on-demand and Internet content, including photos and music, into an in-home entertainment network that connects computers and TV sets.

The company had been expected to announce the new offering at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, beginning Wednesday. On Monday, 2Wire announced that is has won a 2005 International CES Innovations award for its MediaPortal set top box, and the HES service. The two companies will be demonstrating the service at CES, where SBC Chairman Edware Whitacre is a keynote speaker.

The new service, which will be available in mid-2005, is being developed "on a parallel path" to SBC’s Project Lightspeed, the multi-billion dollar effort to increase bandwidth by building fiber to the neighborhood in existing communities and fiber to the home in new developments, according to an SBC spokesman.

Customers who subscribe to SBC Yahoo! DSL Service and to SBC/Dish Network will be eligible to receive the new home entertainment service, which uses the 2Wire MediaPortal technology to integrate network computers and televisions, allowing the customer to access photos and music that are stored on a computer on a television screen and to control DVR and programming functions of the television from a PC.

The focus will be on ease-of-use, said the SBC spokesman.

"All the pieces will be tied into an in-home network that will be smoothly and easily controlled without a lot of technical training," he commented. "You’ll be able to listen to MP3s that are downloaded onto your computer through a home entertainment system using the remote control and do the same thing with photos stored on a computer."

Many details must still be worked out, including pricing, and installation.

"We don’t have actual fees established yet, but we do know there will be a one-time leasing fee customers will pay for the system and other fees for services."

Currently, SBC drop-ships DSL modems to its new customers, but it is highly likely this more complex inside wiring job will be done by company technicians, the spokesman added.

EchoStar, owner of Dish Network, has agreed to ensure that broadcast content works with 2Wire’s new set-top box service. SBC and Yahoo! recently announced an agreement to extend the SBC Yahoo! online interface to other products.

SBC customers who do get connected to a fiber network, either in the neighborhood or at the home, will get a "somewhat different set of services" based on the greater bandwidth available, the spokesman said. SBC has not yet chosen a set-top vendor for that service. Eventually, Cingular wireless service will be integrated into the home network, to allow customers to program their DVRs from a wireless handset or to set security levels on home computers remotely.

2Wire has been providing home gateways through SBC for DSL subscribers with multiple PCs. The company also has distribution deals with BellSouth and CenturyTel as well as several international carriers.