Wanadoo squares up to BT with Livebox home service

by Ben Carter,, Marketing 21-Jul-04, 08:00

LONDON - France Telecom is taking on BT in the home for the first time with Livebox, a combined broadband and home entertainment device it is launching across Europe.

In the UK, Livebox will be sold by France Telecom's Wanadoo ISP from next month. Priced £79.99, it will initially offer wireless broadband access throughout users' homes as well as networked gaming through Sony's PlayStation. By the end of the year, it will also offer a voice-over-the-internet calls service.

Wanadoo UK chief executive Eric Abensur said that Livebox was the first phase of creating a "broadband home gateway".

Video-on-demand will be the final service to launch. France Telecom is in talks with major media companies about content distribution. BT is considering a similar broadband TV proposition with a tie-up with Sky.

Livebox will be marketed through an outdoor and online campaign. TV activity is planned in the run-up to Christmas.

It will be sold online and through some of Wanadoo's retail partners, which include Argos, Littlewoods and Maplin Electronics.

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