July 29, 2009

SureWest to Deploy Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV

SureWest Communications will deploy the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV software platform to deliver an advanced TV service over its existing IP-based fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and copper networks in its Sacramento, CA system. The service is expected to be available to new customers by the end of 2009 and will enable SureWest to offer video services to an additional 25,000 homes that currently receive the company’s telephone and high-speed Internet services. SureWest will reach 15,000 additional homes with video services in December 2009 and an additional 10,000 by the second quarter of 2010 for a total of 25,000.

Mediaroom supports whole home DVR for watching recorded shows on any TV in the house, the ability to watch and record up to four channels at one time, third party applications such as DVR remote scheduling and Caller ID on TV, HD video on demand, media-sharing to link photos and music from a PC to the TV, and interactivity and blending of Web content with broadcast TV.

Bill DeMuth, SureWest’s SVP and CTO, said the telco has been testing the Mediaroom service in actual customer environments. “The technology allows us to provide services in new ways that will further blur the lines between traditional TV, Internet and telephone,” he said in a prepared statement. (For more on IPTV and SureWest, click here).

Headquartered in Northern California for more than 90 years, the company expanded into the Kansas City region in February 2008 with the acquisition of Everest Broadband.