AT&T's "Project Lightspeed" should pass 18 million of the telco's 36 million homes with VDSL2 & fiber, over which IPTV will be served (U-Verse). Despite some analyst reports, AT&T insisted to us last week that Project Lightspeed was on track. For those who don't see VDSL2 or live in a fiber-fed development, the company will offer "Homezone", a 2wire Media-Portal DSL/Satellite hybrid box, which Multi-Channel explores in more detail.

"After Lightspeed is fully deployed and U-verse is fully deployed, there will be areas that are just not economic to offer fiber everywhere," AT&T's Homezone managing director Ken Tysell tells the website. "Homezone gives us a great product to make available to residential customers in all of the other areas, too. So we are going to coordinate the offer strategy and the rollout strategy between the two".

The service is currently being trialed by some 230 users, mostly AT&T employees. Coming in high-definition and standard-definition versions, the boxes will offer users media sharing, on-demand content (see our Akimbo report), remote DVR programming, and possibly place-shifting Slingbox functionality - if the legal issues can be worked out. The box is scheduled for a late-summer launch.