Telstra announced that it plans to release its new digital set top box, the T-Box, later this month.

The T-Box is known as a personal video recorder with an internal hard drive of 320GB capacity and two high definition digital television tuners. It also allocates users to gain free access to television channels that are free for viewing, internet television channels, television shows and the seven BigPond channels option which is a library of most wanted videos plus video clips on YouTube when one is connected to the Internet via the BigPond service of Telstra.

T-Box retails at a price of $299 inclusive of a control "free-to-air" television which enables user to rewind, fast-forward, pause, and even record programs up to seven days in advance.

The launch follows the release of the T-Hub device back in April and marks an improved focus by the telco to address decreasing profits of fixed line through the latest IP-based services.

According to a report by Computerworld Australia, the major challenge for Telstra has always been maintaining the profits of fixed line. The company was flagged in February that revenue from Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) services has turned down $222 million year on year during the last half.