Verizon May Launch First IPTV Market This Week

(sub. req.)Verizon’s IPTV service could go online in Keller, Texas this week — making it the first U.S. telco to market with its own video distribution and the first to go head to head with a cable operator with same. Verizon already delivers broadband in Keller. Charter Communications is taking the additional competition (remember Dish and DirecTV) seriously, offering discounts of up to 50 percent for a year for high-speed and video. The WSJ has some details on Verizon’s pricing — $36.90 for about 140 channels, and $43.90 for about 185 channels of digital service, including the $3.95 rental charge for a “set-top box.”
Verizon’s rollout schedule for the rest of 2005 includes additional Texas communities, Fairfax, Va., suburbs of New York and Tampa, as well as some spots in California. Launches require a combination of technical set-up by Verizon like completeing fiber-to-home networks and local government approvals.
SBC will be following Verizon for a while but could catch up or leap ahead at some point if its IPTV software solution from Microsoft works as promised because it doesn’t involve fiber to home.

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