CenturyTel and Echostar renewed their strategic partnership to offer DISH Network as a part of CenturyTel’s triple play bundle. Both parties seem to be quite pleased with the relationship, although no official subscriber numbers or projections were released with the announcement. This development begs the question, what exactly is CenturyTel’s long term triple play strategy? Have they decided that an IPTV or other wireline video solution is not in their long term plans? That would seem to go counter to the telecom industry’s thinking on this issue. For now, CenturyTel and Embarq seem to be the two carriers of note who appear to be “digging in” with a DBS partner. Maybe they know something everyone else doesn’t.
Read the CenturyTel press release for the details.