AT&T announced Tuesday it has made a deal with Akimbo Systems to provide video on demand through a combined DSL (digital
subscriber line) and satellite TV service.
The national wireline carrier is already planning a "fiber-to-the-node" service that would compete with rival Verizon Communications
Inc.'s Fios TV "fiber-to-the-home" network. But as an early "triple play" offering of voice, video and data, it is now in
trials with Homezone, a TV service that combines AT&T Yahoo High Speed Internet and AT&T Dish Network TV programming. Homezone
includes video on demand, digital video recording and digital photos and music via a special set-top box. Live TV programming
will come over Dish Network's satellite service while video on demand will be delivered via DSL.
The deal with Akimbo will let AT&T offer the San Mateo, California, company's video content, which will be offered as part
of the Homezone service.
Akimbo has more than 10,000 movies and TV shows from more than 165 content partners worldwide, according to an AT&T statement.
Homezone subscribers will have access to an online guide with a video search function and will be able to use it remotely
from any Internet-connected computer. From the remote computer, they'll be able to browse and download programs so they're
available at home for viewing later.
AT&T has said Homezone is scheduled for launch this summer, meaning that it will probably arrive sometime between June and
August. The Akimbo video on demand will be available shortly after that launch, according to AT&T spokesman Wes Warnock. Movielink
LLC will also be a source of video on demand on Homezone, he said.
The carrier is building a high-speed network called Project Lightspeed that brings fiber to nodes within neighborhoods. Its
U-verse service, which will offer services including IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) over that infrastructure, is currently in
a controlled market entry in AT&T's home city of San Antonio, Texas, he said.
Also on Tuesday, Verizon said its Fios TV service is available immediately in parts of Plano, Texas. About one-third of the
65,000 Plano households served by Verizon can sign up for the service now, the company said in a statement. Fios TV is now
available in 17 suburbs in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and by the end of the year it will be offered to about one-third of
Verizon's Texas customers, the company said.
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