It is odds-on that if Telecom does try to use its copper network to deliver TV into people's homes, it will use Microsoft's Internet protocol TV (IPTV) software platform to do it.
Telecom is wiring up households in a new subdivision in Flatbush, Manukau, with fibre optic cable and that could provide an early testbed for television-over-IP.
Mr Milner says Telecom will use the "most appropriate technology" for any trials, which "may be Microsoft".
It is likely Telecom effectively outsourced the technology choice to Alcatel when it awarded the French firm a $120 million contract to help build its $1 billion next-generation fixed-line network in 2003.
Alcatel announced less than two weeks ago that it would market Microsoft IPTV to broadband providers worldwide.
Alcatel provides the equipment used to support 40 per cent of telcos' broadband DSL lines worldwide and as such has the biggest vested interest in trying to deliver IP-based TV over copper if it can.
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