Australian Telecommunications giant Telstra yesterday confirmed its plans of introducing a major upgrade to its cable services network by announcing the launch of "a set-top box and digital video recorder" that would allow subscribers to not only record TV shows, but also download the network's online sports content and movies to enable their viewing on TV instead of on a PC. The plan was hinted at by Telstra last year as well, but now it has been confirmed and is set to roll out soon.

The set-top box, christened the Tbox, will be introduced in Melbourne next month with a limited number of trail devices.

Sports events which already appear on Telstra's BigPond site will have their own individual channels under the new service and will appear on the Tbox's program guide. Full length matches, however, will be available 12 hours after the live event has taken place to comply with the company's internet rights. Also, Telstra has promised that with the Tbox, much more movies will be available for download than any other network currently offers.

Although the price of Tbox, which will be available to the 2.3 billion Telstra customers nationwide starting next year, has not been confirmed yet, the company's Product Management Chief Holly Kramer has been quick to say that the cost will be "bundled together" with the firm's broadband internet services.