TI touts video via telecom

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LOS ANGELES: Texas Instruments Inc. staked a claim on the next generation of broadband technology, unveiling a new DSL chip it is promoting as a standard to allow telephone and data carriers to offer video services.

The new technology, called Uni-DSL, raises the bandwidth of DSL so it can carry advanced video services, such as high-definition television, along with voice and data functions on existing telecoms infrastructure, TI said in a statement.

The company touted the new technology as "backwards compatible" with operators' current infrastructure so that a minimum capital expenditure would be required to add it to residential service areas.

The Dallas-based semiconductor maker said it planned to lobby standards organizations to accept Uni-DSL as universal DSL technology.

"It's really to provide telephone operators a way to enable them to have very high bandwidth video and other applications," Peter Chow, TI's chief technology officer, said. "This really allows the operator to be future-proofed to a certain degree."

TI, which competes in DSL technology with European chip giant STMicroelectronics, said it expects to roll out its first Uni-DSL equipment in 2006.

(Additional reporting by Dan Sorid in San Francisco)






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