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Americas Issue: January 2007
Broadband Gamble: Service Providers Place Bets for 2007 and Beyond
by Telecommunications Magazine staff
At one time, the service provider’s bet on broadband access service was rather one dimensional in nature: Deliver high-speed data pipes to the home and business. But it’s clear that the need for speed is only one part of the gamble. Armed with their existing copper, HFC and deep fiber-based networks, the service providers are betting that the promise of broadband is not just about data, but also about voice, video and even wireless all in one neat package. According to a global broadband access survey conducted by Telecommunications® at the end of August 2006, 73 percent of fixed-line operators said they would spend more on broadband access networks and services in 2007 than they did in 2006. What can we expect this year? Read on.
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Tim Hills, President Hancock Telecom
Video: The (Really) Hard Part Is Over; Now the Fun Begins
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For Hancock Telecom, a rural telephone co-op in Greenfield, Ind., the hard part — or more correctly, the really hard part — is over.
Hancock last year took a walk on the wild side, stepping beyond providing telephone and data services to small-town customers and into delivering video. For a time system personnel wondered if they’d also stepped into quicksand.
“Video is hard; it’s very hard, and the first six months are terrible,” said Mike Knoll, Hancock’s CTO, during a panel session at last November’s TelcoTV Conference in Dallas.
No one thing makes video harder than anything else for a telco, but a number of factors combine to do so. Any new service comes with a level of unreliability to which telco customers are unaccustomed, and new equipment that vendors are rolling out exacerbates this. Employees used to dealing with voice issues need video training to learn about new technology and new ways to handle customers who are more likely to complain than in the past.
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