WASHINGTON—The revelation of additional FCC documents has shined more light on the Android TV-based CPE that T-Mobile might soon be deploying for its revamped TVision pay-TV service.
An FCC filing from Chinese vendor SEI Robotics reveals that the newly revised TVision might be based on an HDMI dongle similar to the one SEI Robotics supplies to Dish Network for the satellite TV company’s AirTV Mini Android TV-powered product.
How similar? The user manual included in the filing is for the $80 AirTV Mini (see image below).
Last week, 9to5 Google unearthed a January T-Mobile filing that revealed a new TVision-branded remote control, one that indicates that the revised service will be based on Android TV.
T-Mobile acquired Denver-based startup pay-TV company Layer3 TV for $325 million at the beginning of 2018. With the imminent departure of T-Mobile Chief Content Officer Lindsay Gardner, Layer3 TV’s top executives have all moved on. T-Mobile rebranded the Layer3 TV service as TVision some time ago, but it has not expanded the $90-a-month, 154-channel service beyond its limited footprint of New York, L.A., Chicago and several other big cities.
TVision’s tech platform has reportedly been revised, and T-Mobile is said to be ready to nationally deploy its revamped TVision service as part of fixed wireless 5G service when the disruption of the pandemic lifts.
