The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) have negotiated a deal that will allow rural telcos to offer an IPTV solution from SES Americom.
The NRTC spent a year evaluating SES Americom’s technology and services on behalf of its members.
Following that evaluation’s completion in August, the NRTC and NTCA negotiated two options for their members.
The first is an end-to-end IPTV service using SES Americom’s IP-Prime, a centralized, satellite-delivered IPTV distribution solution that includes content transport, headend services, and set-top boxes. The other is a programming-only solution for telcos that have their own headends or transport arrangements with another company.
The North Central Telephone Cooperative, based in Lafayette, Tenn., signed the first non-beta contract to distribute IPTV using the IP-Prime solution, according to the NRTC. The company will use IP-PRIME to supplement its cable system and its DSL network.
North Central Tel, which has 22,000 customers, also recently purchased equipment from Occam to run the triple play (see story).