ALLENDALE GETS TRIAL BY FIRE WITH STUDENTS

Rolling out triple-play service is a significant step for any incumbent carrier and one that usually follows a fairly conservative growth pattern. Typically, the plan calls for starting with an in-house test, then moves to a trial with employees and friends, followed by a rollout in a “safe” neighborhood.

Allendale Communications, a 7000-line incumbent carrier in Allendale, Mich., didn't get that playbook. The company started with an internal testing in a conference room and moved to the friendly trial. But instead of targeting a quiet area where consumers would welcome the service and not demand too much, the company choose to launch triple play (well, sort of triple play) in four apartment complexes that served as off-campus housing for students at Grand Valley State University.

“When we deployed to the off-campus housing, it was just DSL and video,” said Mike Osborne, general manager of Allendale Communications. “We had the option for voice, but college students all have cell phones and don't have much use for dial tone.”

As it turns out, the students also had little use for what most of the industry would think of as a solid triple-play service. “We thought we did our homework on this and thought we'd get requests for two set-tops,” Osborne said.

More typical, though, were requests for between three and four streams of video plus enough data bandwidth for several laptops to be surfing the Web at the same time.

“Typically, they had a very large-screen TV in the living room and then a 27-inch TV in each bedroom,” Osborne said. “They also have more surround sound systems than I think anyone I know. And then you add in all the wireless devices, and it's a lot.”

Allendale solved some of the issues by using Panaway's Personal Branch Gateway inside students' apartments and sharing bandwidth among all end devices. In the access portion of the network, the company utilized ADSL2+ technology to boost bandwidth.

“The best part of the student housing is that it's all in one area,” said Hilda Wittingen, marketing manager for Allendale. Wittingen put together marketing kits — for its entire service territory — that included information on the company's triple-play services and a bag of microwave popcorn.

The move paid off when the company was flooded with orders at the start of the school year. Allendale ended up doing 310 video installs in five days. Impressive as that may be to most telcos, college students can be an impatient lot.

“We lost about 50 or 60 orders because we couldn't get there fast enough.”