SYDNEY: Telstra is edging closer to revealing the successor to its T-Box set-top box device, with the telco reportedly working on a low-cost unit that will stream free content from BigPond Movies, Foxtel and Seven West Media’s online subscription spin-off, Presto.
According to The Australian Financial Review, Telstra has been looking for a supplier for the new device, which is unlikely to have an internal hard drive.
The telco reportedly invited four vendors, including Google, Technicolor and current T-Box supplier Netgem, to participate in the process to find a replacement for the T-Box replacement, with PACE, which supplies Foxtel’s IQ series set-top boxes, seen as the preferred tenderer, the AFR reports.
The report adds that Telstra’s existing relationship with Foxtel means that the likes of Netflix are excluded from the new device.
Speculation about the fate of the T-Box has been circulating since September last year, with talk that the product was going to be scrapped in favour of Foxtel’s iQ3.
With the iQ3 set to become available to Foxtel and the pay TV operator’s anticipated “triple play” bundle of television, broadband and home phone set to be rolled out in the first quarter of 2015; the talk was that the evolving landscape may not have a place for the T-Box.
The total number of T-Box units in Australia currently stands at around 760,000.
