CenturyTel expanding IPTV, broadband bonding

CenturyTel (NYSE: CTL) will expand its IPTV service in select markets within its historical service territory this year as it continues to evaluate a possible rollout of IPTV in the acquired Embarq footprint, the company said today. And it will expand the use of bonding broadband lines to increase bandwidth beyond the single trial market where the carrier uses it today.

CenturyTel has been trialing a simple IPTV service in one market, LaCrosse, Wis., since 2005. But it will expand that trial to other areas in the coming months, Glen Post, CenturyTel’s chief executive officer, said on a quarterly earnings call today.

“We’re considering a couple of what we call ‘IPTV-lite’ trials in the coming months, based on 10-megabit [per second] speeds,” Post said. “We’ve had a lot of success in LaCrosse without HDTV, without DVR. We’ll trial in a couple other markets that aren’t very dense, where we don’t have the broadband speed capabilities to get the 25 Mb/s to 30 Mb/s we expect to get in more dense markets. We’ll be doing some work in very selective cases in our markets this year.”

When asked about launching IPTV service in Embarq territory once CenturyTel’s acquisition of that company closes (which is expected to happen this quarter), Post declined to say much, citing competitive reasons, but added, “We do think there’s opportunity to put video in the Embarq markets, to provide IPTV service there. They’re much more dense than the markets we serve in several areas. We’ve not made any decisions there. But we believe there is real opportunity there. When we get this transaction closed, we’ll be looking really closely at those opportunities in the weeks and months ahead.”

CenturyTel will also soon be expanding its use of bonding ADSL2+ lines, which it has so far only used in LaCrosse and in its own labs. And after the Embarq acquisition closes, CenturyTel will look to boost speeds in that territory as well.

“Bonding is really working now, it’s being perfected,” Post said. “We have very little of it on our network. You can double your broadband speeds with bonding. It’s a real opportunity for us in the months ahead.”

Last fall SureWest Communications launched 10-Mb/s services using bonded ADSL2+ in its incumbent territory, with plans to one day potentially offer video over those lines. AT&T and Qwest

Communications, meanwhile, have predicted they will trial bonding their VDSL2 lines this year.

Most of CenturyTel’s DSL-enabled lines can deliver between 6 Mb/s and 10 Mb/s today, Post said.