James Delahunty
7 Mar 2007 17:03
AT&T and Verizon Wireless (the top two U.S. wireless providers) have both announced new features that will allow customers to remotely record TV shows by programming their DVRs with their mobile phones. AT&T said that its subscribers can now use their mobile phones to record TV shows on home TVs using Homezone, a video-on-demand service that AT&T offers with satellite TV provider EchoStar Communications.
Verizon Wireless said its customers will be able to use their phones to program TiVo Inc. digital video recorders remotely, starting next week. The third largest provider, Sprint Nextel Corp., also plans to make a similar offer available later in the year through its venture with cable providers such as Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc.
While analysts agree that such services can help to either attract some new customers, or retain current customers as competition gets tougher, the demand for such features is not very high. A survey conducted by a Jupiter Research analyst showed less than 10% of respondents as interested in such features.
Source:
Reuters