BellSouth teams with Pulte Homes

BellSouth has signed up the first alliance under its new BellSouth Community Technologies initiative, landing a deal as preferred provider of communications and entertainment services to new homes built by Pulte Homes, the largest U.S. home builder by revenue.

The BellSouth Communities Technologies initiative focuses on multi-dwelling units, including condominiums and apartments, and on master home communities, said Phil Jacobs, president of BCT.

“Master home communities represent 70% of housing starts in our Southeast region,” Jacobs said. “If you layer on top of that the condo growth, particularly in Florida, and this is a significant segment of our market.”

Under the exclusive marketing agreement with Pulte, BellSouth will work with the developer as new housing communities are planning and constructed and will earn Pulte’s recommendation to its home buyers. In green field deployments, BellSouth will install fiber to the curb networks, then wire homes with Category 5 Ethernet cabling and coaxial cable to deliver data and video services throughout the home, in addition to phone service.

“Initially, the video service is provided through DirecTV, but as we explore IPTV, we may make that transition as well, if that’s the direction we decide to go,” Jacobs said.

By working with contractors and builders in advance, BellSouth is able to make sure homes are properly wired and networks are constructed to provide a high quality of voice, data and video services, he said. One of the primary reasons BellSouth Communities Technologies was established was to address this unique market segment.

“Often the decisions are being made by someone who is buying consumer services, but buying them in bulk,” Jacobs explained. That means this market segment straddles the more traditional breakdown of sales between consumer and business.

While some MDU operators are choosing exclusive agreements with service providers and only allowing one company to wire a building, the Pulte agreement is exclusive only in its marketing arrangement, and residents can choose for themselves from among available service providers.

“Pulte builds 8000 homes a year in our territory, so this is a very significant deal for us,” he said. Most of those new homes are in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina.