SAN ANTONIO -- SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC) today announced that contracts have been awarded to both Scientific-Atlanta (NYSE: SFA) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) to deliver next-generation Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) set-top boxes that will enable customers to access TV programming, video-on-demand, interactive applications and other advanced features that are part of the U-verse family of services.

Both vendors will develop and supply IPTV set-top boxes that will help SBC companies offer consumers more TV choice and a much-needed alternative to cable companies. The contracts, awarded by SBC Services Inc., give equal market opportunity to both vendors and continue through the end of 2008. Project Lightspeed is the SBC initiative to expand its fiber-optics network deeper into neighborhoods to deliver SBC U-verse TV, voice and high-speed Internet access services.

“This is a major technology milestone for IPTV,” said Lea Ann Champion, senior executive vice president, SBC IP Operations and Services. “A number of different technology components have come together to ensure the set-top boxes can efficiently support the features and functionality we plan to deliver to our customers.”

The planned IPTV set-top boxes are tunerless, which allows multiple video streams to be sent to one set-top box. Additionally, because the boxes will operate next-generation compression technology – either MPEG4 or VC1 – the Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) are expected to store content approximately twice as efficiently as DVRs provided by other video distributors’ DVRs.

“We remain on track to give consumers more video entertainment choices through SBC U-verse TV,” said Champion. “The planned set-top boxes will offer many outstanding capabilities and we can add even more features in the future by upgrading the software in the boxes remotely.”

The set-top boxes will operate the new Microsoft® TV IPTV Edition software. SBC provided a common set of specifications to both vendors to build the set-top boxes.

“Motorola’s IP set-top platform, built on our decades of experience as the global leader in digital set-top technologies, will establish SBC U-verse TV as an industry-leading IP video service,” said Dan Moloney, president, Motorola Connected Home Solutions. “Our vision of seamless mobility begins with bringing high-quality, IP video into the connected home, and our role in the launch of SBC’s entertainment service represents yet another step forward in making that vision a reality.”

SBC Communications Inc.