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INDEPENDENT TELCOS
Gorham Telephone Brings
IPTV Services to Kansas
To IPTV or not to IPTV Working with an integrator can reduce the headache
– and expense – of delivering cutting-edge services to your customers.
By Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
Worldwide, about 20 million television viewers now
subscribe to IPTV services over DSL or fiber-to-thehome
networks. So there’s no doubt that IPTV technology
works – and offers the potential for new interactive services
in the future. But telcos often shy away from it, describing
it as difficult and expensive to implement, in part because there
are so many pieces of hardware and software to integrate. Even
some Tier 1 telcos, notably Verizon, are approaching IPTV
gradually and with caution. Smaller LECs tend to find it even
more daunting.
But there are several simple and cost-effective ways for rural
telcos to bring IPTV services to their customers. One way is to
work with an integrator that can help assemble all of the moving
parts and make sure they work together correctly, and even
take over some of the processing of video files. Gorham Telephone
Company in Gorham, Kansas, chose this option after
migrating its 500 access lines to a fiber-to-the-home network.
Mike Murphy, president of Gorham Telephone and one of
the third generation of Murphys who own the company, says
Gorham Tel, like many rural telcos, had delivered video services
over coaxial cable in a portion of its service area before
the upgrade. After deploying fiber to the home in 2006-2007,
it had the option of continuing to deliver video using the RF
technology it was familiar with – again, a path that many allfiber
rural telcos have chosen. (RF video over the network is
not an available option for telcos using DSL.)
But Murphy decided to follow the advice of a consultant
who recommended that IPTV would be less costly than RF in
the long run and would better position Gorham Tel to deliver
new services in the future.
Searching for A Solution
The next question was how to acquire the hardware, software
and, especially, the programming required to offer a compelling
video service. Murphy’s wife and co-owner Tonya Murphy
began looking for ways to acquire IPTV content, rejecting
several options because they were not priced appropriately for
a small company. Her search ultimately led to Power & Telephone
Supply (Power & Tel, www.ptsupply.com), a worldwide
distributor of material for the telecommunications and cable
Learn more about IPTV at the
Broadband Summit,
April 27–29, 2009,
in Dallas, Texas
TV industries, and to Power & Tel’s integrator partner, CSI
Digital (www.csidigital.net). In partnership with Power & Tel,
CSI Digital offers a full standard-definition/high-definition
solution to the independent telco market.
Gorham Tel purchased IPTV equipment from Power & Tel
and contracted with CSI Digital to help put together an endto-end
solution, including (among other things) a customized
IPTV gateway, Amino set-top boxes, Minerva middleware and
programming. The solution met all of the stringent security
requirements imposed by the content providers.
Murphy estimates that working with CSI Digital saved
about half of the cost of implementing IPTV, compared with
a do-it-yourself option. But CSI’s solution didn’t just save
money; it also reduced the time to market for Gorham Tel.
“They shipped everything out to us all assembled, and we just
rolled it in and put the cables up. We were ready to go in a
couple of weeks,” says Murphy. He notes that despite “a few
little hiccups” that were resolved quickly, the solution works
as expected.
Acquiring IPTV programming and
meeting the programmers’ security
requirements can be expensive
for a small provider. An integrator
can help perform these tasks faster
and more cost effectively.
66 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009