Posted on 02/11/2005 7:53:10 AM PST by KwasiOwusu
Verizon Communications Inc. plans to use Microsoft Corp. technology for its rollout of television service over a new fiber-optic network, becoming the third major telephone company to help fulfill Microsoft's long-stymied bid to barge into the TV business.
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Verizon, which is spending billions to replace its copper phone lines with speedy fiberglass cables, also expects to exploit the technology's Internet-based capabilities to roll out more advanced interactive services down the road, the companies planned to announce Monday.
The deal with Verizon comes on the heels of a contract from SBC Communications Inc. to use Microsoft's platform to launch that telephone company's planned TV service and an agreement with BellSouth Corp. to conduct trials with the technology.
By signing up the nation's three biggest local phone companies, Microsoft has taken a sharp detour to achieve in just three months what it failed to accomplish in a decade, bypassing the traditional cable establishment to establish a serious beachhead in the video entertainment industry.
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And in other countries, Microsoft's technology is being used by some cable providers in Mexico and in trials and tests with the telephone companies Bell Canada, SwissCom AG of Switzerland and Telecom Italia of Italy. An earlier foray into Portugal was withdrawn.
While the latest deals aren't obviously lucrative -- SBC agreed to pay just $400 million over 10 years and no terms were disclosed for the Verizon or BellSouth agreements -- the contracts may position Microsoft at the focal point of the expected convergence of TV and the Internet, helping replicate and reinforce its dominant position in the computer industry.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Hey, you look funnier than usual this morning.
Warned ya about what swallowing all that open source would do to ya,didn't I?
Poor guy.
Heck. I'll be glad if/when I can get the FIOS service down here in Hampton Roads ;)
That's the Verizon fiber service.
First thing that comes to my mind is the WIDEBlueScreenOfDeath.
It's no secret. Verizon has already announced that they will start putting in fiber to the house when they get a cable TV franchise from the local city officials. With the local cable provider's regular increases in price and decreases in service, they will probably be successful.
Yeah i know. They are already rolling out in the test neighborhoods. I'm pretty excited about it.
Last week, I had to call Verizon to make a change to my phone service. One of the off-handed questions I was asked was "do you have cable TV"? The question didn't fit the context of the call, but I'm sure they were asking it to determine future business moves.
I recently wrote the user's manual for a video compression system that MS is interested in. Imagine being able to squeeze a hi-def movie onto a standard DVD. That tight a squeeze. Able to compress the bit stream "on the fly..."
That's old hat. The Bells want desperately to dominate the triple play market. Their advantage so far is they have a more stable backbone. Their negative is it'll require a complete nationwide re-work on the scale of the public works programs on the 30s.
Sounds neat. But to be fair a DUer is working on fitting upwards of 20 people into a phone booth. ;)
Perhaps the Bell monopolies can use the Civilian Conservation Corps again to replace those old wires.
The probability of ever seeing a fiber optic investment in the Pocatello area is pretty small. I'll have to watch this from the sidelines.
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