New tech woos MDUs

Service providers at the Broadband Properties Summit in Dallas last week were eager to tell the audience of property owners about their progress in developing offerings to serve multidwelling units — especially because a recent FCC ruling barred exclusive access deals with landlords, which makes MDUs more competitive than ever.

MDU Communications offered an update on its new system for delivering video services to building residents. Six months ago, MDUC turned up its first customers for the new product — called MFH-3 and developed by DirecTV and Thompson — which distributes satellite video as IP traffic over a variety of cabling (initially Cat 5 cabling) from rooftops down to Ethernet switches in each residential unit. Because the system has a high fixed cost ($60,000 to more than $90,000), it's meant for large MDUs and can serve up to 1000 receivers per headend. The initial deployment, atop a 350-unit building in Alexandria, Va., will one day serve a new building the same size that's being erected next door. So far, in-building penetration is around 20%, MDUC said, though the effort got off to a slow start because high-definition receivers weren't ready when tenants first moved in last January.

Meanwhile, Verizon, which expects to ready 650,000 living units for fiber-to-the-premises this year, says it's working hard to address the unmet needs of MDUs. For example, some building owners already give their residents a view, through their TVs, of the front-door security camera. Unlike AT&T's IPTV network, Verizon's passive optical network currently can't insert localized content at that level, so the company is considering other options. “We know we need to do it,” said Daniel O'Connell, director of national sales for Verizon. “We're working on it very aggressively.”