Want TV ... Films ? ... call the telephone company.

Is this the profitable route for US telco's losing voice traffic ?

AT&T announced on Tuesday that it will team up with San Mateo-based Akimbo (with a library of 10,000 television programs, from both mainstream and niche (!) broadcasters) to allow customers to download movies and shows over the Internet through AT&T's new Homezone service.

AT&T has been offering satellite television service through a partnership with Dish Network (Eng / Espanol) since 2003, and is working on building a TV network called Lightspeed that reaches homes through fiber-optic connections over the next few years.This usesthe 2Wire HomePortal® 3000 series, which supports fiber-to-the-premises and VDSL technologies.

Homezone starts in California and 12 other States this summer will combine several services:

• Live TV from the Dish Network

• DSL Internet service

• Major-studio movies downloadable from Movielink

• Older TV shows and movies downloadable from Akimbo

• Digital video recording

• Caller ID that appears on the television screen (Wow!)

• Photo-sharing and radio services from Yahoo.

Customers will also be able to log onto their AT&T Homezone receiver remotely, through a Web browser or wireless phone, to schedule DVR recordings, start movie downloads ...etc., now that IS neat.

The set-top box will be manufactured by San Jose-based 2Wire. AT&T have not released costs.

Akimbo is also working with Movielink to launch a TV and movie service separate from the Homezone service later in the year.

AT&T's TV ambitions are not popular in some quarters , cable providers call it "warmed over DSL" and see deeper and darker motives behind AT&T's announcement.


Dennis Mangers,(San Jose Mercury) President of cable trade group the California Cable and Telecommunications Association, said Homezone is a cobbled-together product, designed to please not customers, but politicians who are trying to figure out whether TV service from a phone company should be regulated the same way as cable TV.

"We think Homezone is really a fraud,'' says a combative Mangers . ``AT&T is trying to use Homezone as a product to escape it's obligations.''

Cable companies need to make franchise agreements with every city where cable TV is sold. These agreements ensure that cable service is rolled out to poor neighbourhoods, with low returns, as well as prosperous areas who buy the profitable premium services.

In California, AT&T has been lobbying for Statewide, rather than local, franchise agreements. Mangers said he believes AT&T is trying to get out of bringing quality service to poor communities by offering such customers Homezone instead of the higher-tech Lightspeed service.

Ken Tysell, AT&T's director of broadband applications, says Homezone `complements'' their Lightspeed service.

For other comments go to IP & Democracy and paid content.org , you can also see a video of the service from AT&T here and ven make your own mind up!