AT&T said Wednesday that it will soon offer its broadband subscribers unlimited free Wi-Fi access in its hot spots, as well as a new supercharged 10Mbps tier of service.
Free Wi-Fi will be offered only to AT&T broadband subscribers who subscribe to services with 1.5Mbps downloads or higher. Subscribers who only have the company's wireless service will not be offered free Wi-Fi.
This means that users of the iPhone, which has Wi-Fi built in and is exclusively sold in the U.S. for AT&T's network, will only be able to take advantage of the free Wi-Fi offer if they happen to live in a part of the country where AT&T broadband is offered and if they subscribe to that service.
AT&T has more than 10,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in the U.S. in places like airports, McDonald's restaurants, Barnes & Noble bookstores, coffee shops, and sporting venues. The carrier has been offering free Wi-Fi access to its higher-speed broadband customers since last year.
AT&T's move could be seen as a way to entice subscribers to bundle cell phone service with their broadband service. But it might also be an attempt to compete with other cellular providers like T-Mobile, which offers subscribers access to its more than 8,000 Wi-Fi hot spots. T-Mobile also has a service that allows its customers the ability to switch between Wi-Fi and the cell phone network while they are at home.
AT&T also announced it would add a new faster tier of service with 10Mbps downloads and 1.5Mbps uploads to its U-verse customers. U-verse is the newly upgraded network that AT&T is building to deliver TV and broadband over the same Internet connection to the home. Bundled with U-verse TV, the new, faster broadband service costs $55 a month. These subscribers also qualify to receive free Wi-Fi access.
Sun Microsystems said Wednesday that AT&T plans to use its Sun Fire servers and storage arrays to power its Internet Protocol television service, called U-Verse.
The deal is significant for Sun because it could be a foot in the door to eventually sell AT&T its new, advanced Sun Streaming System, which includes Sun Fire servers and other technology that can be used to stream 160,000 simultaneous IP video streams onto a network.
Sun created the Sun Streaming System to serve the emerging IPTV market. Phone companies around the world, such as AT&T, are using IP to deliver television service. And the Sun Streaming System, which can cost as much as $8 million, provides a scalable and cost-effective way to deliver video-on-demand services to thousands of homes. A deal with AT&T, the largest phone company in the United States, would be a huge validation of the technology.
It would also be a big endorsement for Andy Bechtolsheim, the Sun co-founder who led the design of this new server technology. Bechtolsheim rejoined Sun in 2004 when it acquired his start-up, Kealia, which was basing its business on the Internet-video product.
But so far, Sun is keeping mum about whether or not AT&T is testing the new system.
"Sun can't comment on whether or not AT&T is currently evaluating the Sun Streaming System," a spokeswoman said. "But this deployment definitely provides a great opportunity for working with them in the future.
Microsoft said Monday that's it's revamped its IPTV software, now called MediaRoom. In a feature published Monday on CNET News.com, I've already gone into some depth about what the new software offers and what it means for the telco TV market.
Some common ground
(Credit: NBC)But I also wanted to point out an important feature the new software doesn't offer: multiroom DVR. This service would be a dream come true for me. Even though I've got three TVs in my tiny apartment in New York City, my roommate and I still fight over the TV in the living room. Why? It's the only one with the DVR. We've each gotten so accustomed to watching recorded TV on our own schedules that neither of us even watches TV in our bedrooms, because then we'd have to watch TV live. Oh, the horror!
The situation has caused some tension between us. I refuse to watch American Idol or Dancing with the Stars, even though I know we can fast-forward through the boring parts. I also might be the only person in America who can't stand Lost. By the same token, my roommate has no interest in the latest Frontline episode or Charlie Rose interviews. We have found some common ground with shows such as The Office, 30 Rock and Grey's Anatomy. And of course we're both anxiously awaiting the new season of Project Runway.
But a multiroom DVR could end a budding war in my household. I could watch my boring PBS shows anytime I want in my room, while she could belt out bad pop songs on American Idol in hers.
Microsoft says the feature will be added in later releases. Ed Graczyk, a director of marketing for Microsoft, said the reason it wasn't in the current version of the software is that IPTV operators didn't see it as a top priority. AT&T said it's considering offering multiroom DVR functionality, but it didn't give any specific plans.
But I think AT&T and other telcos using Microsoft's software are missing a big opportunity to differentiate their services. Verizon has offered multiroom DVR for almost a year. EchoStar's Dish network also offers it. And Time Warner (my cable provider) has it in some locations. (Too bad for me Manhattan isn't one of them.)
Unfortunately, even if Microsoft had added multiroom DVR to this current version of software, it still wouldn't change my situation. I don't live in any of the 21 cities where AT&T is offering its IPTV U-verse service. (AT&T is the largest IPTV provider in the U.S. using the Microsoft MediaRoom software.)
That said, I think I'm a pretty average consumer. And the multiroom DVR function would definitely prompt me to go through the hassle of changing my service. And if I'd do it, maybe other people would too.
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