SFR France Launched Home Gateway: Neufbox Evolution

SFR of France has left no stone unturned with its sixth generation Neufbox home gateway – dubbed Neufbox Evolution. The box is a set-top box and home gateway all in one; it offers IPTV multiscreen access, Femtocell connectivity, the ability to connect directly to ADSL and Fibre-to-the-home and a host of other functions. Users have the option to connect the Neufbox Evolution wired or wirelessly. The IPTV service offers over a hundred channels plus the option to save content locally. Prices start at 29.90 euros and vary depending on additional features.

The Neufbox Evolution provides almost and endless amount of services. The Basic IPTV package offers over 150 channels with additional bouquets from Canal+ and CanalSat, plus a la carte channels. From the 250GB internal hard drive 40GB is available free to save files locally.

As a true home mediacentre the Neufbox Evolution can sit as the hub for the other connected devices, it is UPnP compatible to stream and share content.  It has 3 USB 2.0 ports, a wireless router that offers speed of up to 300Mbps and 2 Ethernet ports, so access to files sitting on your USB memory card, PC, external hard drive and Networked Attached Storage (NAS) should not be a problem. Using a Femtocell add-on, you can connect up to five mobile phones to their home relay base.

The Neufbox Evolution offers a unified user interface across mobile smart phones or tablet.  As a set-top box it is 3D ready and boosts a new 3D on-screen guide, which allows users to browse for web services as well as their regular IPTV services.

Neufbox Evolution solutions were developed in partnership with Vivendi and Vodafone, the software was developed by Wyplay who were also involved in the Vodafone Spain and Italy set-top box rollout.

Access to the MyTFI catch-up service is included in the basic offer, but M6 Replay needs additional subscription. VOD (video-on-demand) is sold separately, a Pass Cinema costs 9.99 euro, Pass Kid 5.99 euro and M6 Series 5.99 euro.  The remainder of the 250GB disk is rented in 80GB block at 15 euro per month. To have basic triple play with PVR (Personal Video Recorder) it’s 34.99 euro and 39.99 euro on FttH.