AT&T has had a mixed bag of successes. And this leaves me wondering if whether or not they ought to be entering the set top market in this latest fashion…

NEW YORK - AT&T Inc. is launching a satellite TV set-top box Wednesday that also connects to the Internet for movie downloads, reinforcing the phone company’s push into video services.

The box, called AT&T Homezone, will be initially available in Ohio and San Antonio to new customers of the cobranded AT&T-Dish Network satellite TV service. It will cost $9.99 a month in addition to Internet and satellite service fees.

AT&T plans to expand the service area in coming months, positioning Homezone as an alternative for those who can’t yet receive its premier service, U-Verse, which transmits video over phone lines.

AT&T launched U-Verse service in parts of San Antonio, where the company is based, earlier this summer. It is upgrading its infrastructure to provide the service elsewhere.

Homezone connects to a television set and a separate Internet gateway with a modem for Internet access via DSL, or digital subscriber line.

The box contains a
TiVo-like digital video recorder, or DVR, that records the satellite TV signal on a hard drive. Recordings also can be scheduled remotely via a Web site…. Source: AP