More Cable and Wireless. They are building their own box and platform................................
thestandard.net
August 20, 1998 CWC Sinks $165 Million Into Digital Cable 'TV Mall'
By Kristi Essick
Cable & Wireless Communications PLC has made no secret of its plans to offer digital, interactive services to U.K. homes via its cable TV network, and today the company took a further step in defining those plans by announcing that it will develop its own set-top box platform.
CWC plans to commercially launch digital cable set-top boxes offering up to 200 channels of digital TV and interactive programming guides in the second quarter of 1999, with a gradual rollout of interactive services and the addition of Internet access by the end of that year, according to Roy Payne, a company spokesman.
The British company, which is sinking 100 million pounds (US$165 million) in the development of its set-top box offering, today gave some details of the services dubbed TV Mall. Users of the services will be able to order goods online, check bank account information, gather news and information, and book travel and entertainment tickets, CWC said. These services will become available sometime in the second half of 1999, with Internet access being added at the end of that year, Payne said.
Partnering with CWC in the TV Mall project are Barclays Bank, British Airways, Littlewoods Home Shopping Group, Associated News Media and broadcast news group ITN. CWC said it is also talking to other potential partners, including retailers and consumer services companies.
Digital cable set-top boxes work in conjunction with a regular or digital TV set; users can view Internet content, receive information and send e-mail, using the TV screen as monitor, at speeds much faster than those allowed by an analog modem. CWC's system will offer downstream speeds of 27M bits per second, and upstream speeds of up to 10M bps, Payne said. CWC's network is already 95 percent two-way coaxial cable, necessary for both sending and receiving information over the Internet, Payne said.
Instead of adopting an off-the-shelf platform for digital set-top boxes, which the company has considered doing, CWC decided to create its own standards-based platform, Payne said. Network Computer Inc.'s DTI Navigator Web browser for set-top boxes, which CWC licensed last March, will play a key role in the platform, he said.
Initially, the company said it would have boxes with Internet access available by the end of this year, with interactive services being launched in the first half of 1999. Now, however, CWC thinks it will be better to roll the services out slowly, to pique people's interest and not overwhelm them with everything at once, Payne said.
And CWC isn't the only U.K. company with broadband plans on its agenda. Also set to enter the arena is British Interactive Broadcasting (BIB), a venture made up of British Sky Broadcasting PLC (BSkyB) and British Telecommunications PLC (BT). While CWC plans to tap into its cable network to deliver the services, BIB will rely on its satellite network coupled with BT phone lines. CWC sees BIB as its most formidable competitor, Payne said.
Kristi Essick writes for the IDG News Service in Paris.
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