It's Gigabites Friday. In today's edition, CenturyLink takes its gigabit-powered Prism TV service to Seattle, Parkway Properties signs up its Charlotte-based real estate customers for Google Fiber's gigabit service and more.
After expanding its gigabit broadband service to more than 600,000 homes and nearly half a million businesses, CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) is now extending its IPTV-based Prism TV service to new residents and businesses in Seattle. Riding on top of the company's gigabit network, Prism TV will compete with Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK)'s cable package in the capital region of Washington State. (See CenturyLink Debuts Prism TV on Gigabit Network.)
Most gigabit providers consider TV service to be a critical piece of the network monetization puzzle, and CenturyLink has not been shy about its intentions for video growth. As of the end of June, Prism TV was already available to more than 2.6 million households, and CenturyLink had 258,000 paying subscribers on the books. The company is also developing an OTT video service, which it says will be available to consumers both inside and outside of the Prism TV customer footprint. (See CenturyLink Extends Gig, IPTV Services.)
Orlando-based Parkway Properties has announced that it is signing up real estate customers in Atlanta; Austin; and Charlotte, NC for Google Fiber Inc. 's gigabit service. Sites include major commercial buildings in the downtown areas of all three cities, including several Buckhead locations in Atlanta and the Hearst Tower in Charlotte. The company has also said it is interested in offering gigabit service to its entire portfolio of properties if and when Google Fiber spreads to more cities.
Two small-town communities in Kentucky are getting a gigabit. Regional provider Duo County Telecom announced this week that it has launched gigabit service to homes in Jamestown and Russell Springs as well as to two business parks in Russell County. Dubbed Lightspeed G, the new gigabit service is being touted for its value as an economic development tool, and is expected to fuel growth in the region's automotive manufacturing and healthcare industries.
Adtran Inc. (Nasdaq: ADTN) is on a roll. In case you missed it, the infrastructure vendor announced this week that its gigabit service architecture is reducing time to market for gigabit deployments by up to ten-fold. Much of that success is due to the company's Captive Portal solution, which automates the service provisioning process. (See Adtran Delivers a Faster Gigabit.)
— Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video, Light Reading
kq4ym, User Rank: Light Sabre 8/25/2015 | 8:16:57 AM
Re: Cost... I'm wondering about the gigabit service to small town Kentucky. That's really a contrast to the usual big city plan for super high speed service. I would have to guess someone is subsidizing that small town service big time. Or maybe it's actually just a plan, and never will be built?
KBode, User Rank: Light Sabre 8/24/2015 | 3:50:56 PM
Cost... I'm curious to see companies like CenturyLink continue a video push. I'd thought that the returns on cable TV were incredibly low due to high programming costs, made higher for companies without scale.
While the IPTV platform makes some sense, not sure I'd place any big bets on CenturyLink's over the top TV platform taking off.
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