Race for rural IPTV

by Brian Turner

The low guys on the technology totem pole are finally getting their day â€“ if all goes well that is.

Eagle Broadband Inc., Falcon Communications Inc., and SES Americom are each aiming to win what is being called the â€œrace for the ruralâ€ by being the first and best to offer IPTV packages to the rural and lower tier telcos.

All three of the contenders have suffered set backs in their quest to land on top of the IPTV heap. The launching of each of the services has run into some complications â€“ from partnership breakups to trouble on the shipping lines. All three are still determined to take the hurdles in stride and launch each of the systems by next month.

These new systems will allow servers to share a headend instead of having to purchase one. The headend is the largest expense in an IPTV ecosystem.

Eagle Broadband was the first to tackle this approach of a shared headend and began its development over two years ago. Its IPTV has been delayed the longest due in large part to severed partnerships. Eagle Broadband has also changed directions in development in order to focus on opportunities available with the smaller players.

SES Americom suffered challenges with the set top boxes. The delay led to lots of in-house finger pointing.

Falcon Communications didnâ€™t suffer from any delays. Instead, it announced its product release nearly two months before it planned to make the package commercially available.

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