Rural telcos: Prime testing ground for the triple threat

CHICAGO — For now, the triple threat of voice, data and video is still on the horizon – at least for the larger service providers. Customers in Chicago or Los Angeles may not get all three from one provider; some customers in the Chicago area are still stuck with dial-up. But residents of towns such as Westby, in southwestern Wisconsin, have high-speed Internet, voice and digital-style cable – all from one provider, in this case Vernon Telephone Cooperative.

By: Suzanne Sanders
America’s Network Weekly

Rural telcos, originally voice plays, have been offering DSL for a few years, and the next logical leap is to video. Video over copper, that is over the DSL lines, is the technology that makes it possible. Customer demand makes it profitable.

“We’re a member-owned company, and a lot [of offerings] came from demand from them,” said Kyle Jones, technology services engineer for South Central Rural Telephone Cooperative in Glasgow, Ky.

The telco offers voice, data and offers video over ADSL.

“But it’s hard to say why rural telcos are ahead,” he added. “There is a digital divide, and we’re right in the middle of it. We’re a 13,000 population city, so why do we have this technology? These people here have never seen dial-up.”

Another rural telco thinks that rural telcos are ideal test beds for emerging technologies. “Rural telcos have always been market leaders,” said Phil Erli, executive vice president for Ringgold Telephone Co. in Catoosa County, Ga. Ringgold

“My opinion is that the Bells sit back and see if it works. Then they make it scalable.” And that works to the rural telcos’ advantage, he continued. “We do all the pioneering work. Then they come in with financial clout and drive down prices.”

However, he added, the RBOCs have been slow to embrace video over DSL. “DSL has been a real challenge for them,” he said. “We’ve been in DSL for two and a half years, and we have DSL available to all our customers.”

In addition, the move to video has been fairly hassle-free for rural telcos. “We can continue to use the same plant,” Jones said. “It’s very nice to just put in the electronics.”

Some challenges do exist, he added. “Some of the programming companies are having issues with doing digital,” he said. “Our system is an ADSL system, so encode rates have to be below 4 Megabits, and a lot of companies don’t want to be under 3.5.”

Features from South Central’s plan include one box for both video and data. “However, we can only offer two streams out of one box, but we’ve had tremendous success with the offering,” Jones said.

Ringgold’s offerings include caller ID on the TV screen and video on-demand. Moreover, Erli believes bundling creates customer loyalty. “You’ve got one neck to hug or one neck to choke.” – Suzanne Sanders

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