CAPTAIN VIDEO: A CONVERSATION WITH TCT WEST’S ROD COLLINGWOOD

In 1994, Tri County Telephone purchased seven telephone exchanges in northwestern Wyoming from the former U S West and formed the subsidiary TCT West. Faced with the challenge of upgrading the network for basic phone features, the company made the decision to go even further by pushing fiber deep into the access network. Today, TCT West is one of the most aggressive telcos in the video world. Rod Collingwood, head end manger for TCT West, recent spoke with Telephony’s Vince Vittore about the transition and the future.

On the initial phase of the transition: From 1994 up until 1997, we did fiber rebuild instead of upgrading the old carrier systems. We have more than 500 miles of fiber networks now. We also broke [the acquired properties] up into little serving areas. It initially was built pretty heavy with fiber. The initial broadband decision was made in 1998. The [video] equipment was ordered in 2000, and we did a beta launch in Q4 of 2000. The paying customer launch was a little bit after that.

On customer reaction to providing video in competition with cable and satellite: They were interested in all the channels. At first it’s like “Wow, look at all the selection." The main thing that people were reporting back to us was that they could use all their features and they still had the customer service that they expect from a telco. The rural areas had nothing but off-air service, so it was a big change for the subscribers to have a choice. Overall we have a take rate of about 30%.

On providing content and transport to neighboring ILECs: We had one big OC-48 ring that we’ve broken up into a north ring and a south ring. We’re in discussions with other ILECs because our fiber goes through their area.

On other potential applications: We haven’t branched into any video on demand yet but we’re using our telco plant in some unique ways. We’re actually talking to municipalities about using our current technology for homeland security. There’s twisted pair everywhere, so why not use it for surveillance? We do it for our remote CO.