Could IPTV happen here?
AT&T announced today that it has launched its combination TV and high-speed Internet service to customers in the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas of Michigan.
The service, called AT&T U-verse, uses the company's new network to provide Internet Protocol television, including more than 300 television channels, HD programming, videos on demand, TV recording functions, parental controls and a Spanish-language package?
Sound familiar? It should. Here's further evidence of the blurring lines between phone and cable companies. Time Warner Cable already provides a digital phone, Internet and TV package in the Triad. And now AT&T, which has taken over customers of the former Bell South here, has expanded its IPTV package up north.
There's been no announcement about the potential for a similar product launch in North Carolina. But I'd hazard a guess that if this AT&T product succeeds in Michigan, it's only a matter of time. After all, the state did approve that Video Competition Act last year, paving an easier way for phone companies to jump into the television market.
And AT&T executives at the state level have publicly aired their desires to see phone company cable hit local markets.
Advocates argue that bringing competition into this market could kick off change in cable prices. They may have a point; the Federal Communications Commission reports that prices are an average of 17 percent lower in markets where big cable is forced to compete.
But phone companies - first Bell South, now AT&T in this area - have been slow to move into the costly realm of cable, which requires major upgrades to their networks and entry into the fairly untested waters of broadcasting TV shows using the Internet.
Still, it's clear the phone companies increasingly need TV to compete. Bundling cell phones, DSL and landline service just doesn't cut it, especially as consumers daily appear to be dumping landlines in favor of their wireless devices. Though AT&T and other phone industry players have been offering satellite TV (DirecTV in this area), any cable rep will tell you dish isn't a major threat.
This U-verse service might be a turning point. The months-old programming option, which first became available in Texas, reached more than 18,000 subscribers as of mid-April, according to company reports. Basically, U-verse TV gives consumers one channel at a time - the one they're currently watching - over copper phone lines connected to the company's updated fiber-optic network.
As for pricing on the current AT&T programs, minimum promotional prices for TV and Internet packages appear to run from $74 to $119 a month, according to AT&T's Web site.
Time Warner provides its basic bundle of digital phone, Internet service and cable in Greensboro at a promotional first-year rate of about $90 a month.
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CT Communications in Concord, NC has already begun a test market of their IPTV. They're calling it e-Vision. IPTV is limited to areas that have fiber optic networks so AT&T may take some time to put it in N.C.
It won't be long until TimeWarner's choke hold on television is broken. CTC is just the beginning.
Posted on May 23, 2007 2:38 PM