AT&T is to replace 17,000 batteries used as a power source for its IPTV service, following a series of fires and explosions.

To date there have been two reported fires and two explosions, one of which occured just last month. The incidents have been blamed on the lithium-metal-polymer batteries housed in outdoor telecommunications equipment cabinets and used as a back up power-source for AT&T's U-verse IPTV service, which has about 126,000 customers in the US.

AT&T stopped installing the batteries way back in the first quarter of 2007. They were manufactured by Avestor, which filed for bankruptcy in October 2006.

A spokesman for AT&T told Reuters that its decision to replace the batteries was made after the most recent incident, which occurred in December last year. The company didn't provide any specific details about the occurence.