AT&T started selling video service last month in the San Antonio ...
AT&T started selling video service last month in the San Antonio area, an official confirmed, as had been expected (CD Nov 7 p11). The company was mum on many details of what the spokeswoman called a “controlled market entry,”…
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and declined to say where in the market it was being offered. Several hundred employees and customers are expected eventually to get the service, with “limited direct marketing efforts,” said the spokeswoman. AT&T’s Project Lightspeed is using set top boxes from Tatung in San Antonio, with software from Microsoft, she said. The firm has said it plans to use devices from Scientific-Atlanta, being bought by Cisco, and Motorola for the $5 billion IPTV project (CD Aug 19 p5). AT&T’s video plans, which differ from Verizon’s fiber approach, have drawn some analyst scepticism. “Questions remain over the scalability of the IPTV platform,” wrote UBS’ John Hodulik in a bulletin. The firm will have 95,000 video customers by Dec. 31, “which represents 1% of expected fiber qualified homes,” he wrote. “We're on track to start scaling the service in mid 2006,” said the AT&T official, declining to identify areas where video may be offered. The company is sticking with plans for the product to be available to 18 million subscribers by mid 2008, she said.