TDS, the Madison, Wis. based ILEC, announced the expansion of FTTH service to 4,500 additional homes in its Mt. Juliet, Tenn. market, now passing 7,600 homes there. TDS also offers FTTH in a neighboring market of Farragut, Tenn. A triple play bundle, with an IPTV powered video product is available in both markets. In total, TDS is passing 15,600 homes with FTTH and IPTV.
DeAnne Boegli tells me TDS has been offering IPTV for almost two years now, and was trialing it for about a year prior to that. “We’ve seen great success with our TV product,” says Boegli. Unfortunately, she wouldn’t reveal TV penetration rates, citing the highly competitive nature of these Tennessee markets, where they compete with Charter and Comcast. TDS only offers IPTV to its FTTH customers, at least for now. They are using the Minerva platform for IPTV.
For broadband, TDS offers tiers with top download speeds of 4, 15, and 25 Mbps (10 Mbps upload is offered on the top tier) in these FTTH markets. As for IPTV expansion beyond Tennessee, Boegli was a little coy. “We’re trying to get it right in these markets, relative to cost efficiencies and profitability, before looking outside of these markets,” she says. Translation – don’t look for any aggressive expansion of IPTV from TDS, at least in the near term.
