Telco jumps into cable modem race: Rock Hill signs joint sales deal with local cable operator

Rock Hill Telephone Co., which operates three telcos in South Carolina, said last week it will offer cable modem services through a unique sales agreement with local cable operators.

Working with Catawba Services, which provides cable services in Rock Hill's territory through three operating companies, the telcos will begin service rollouts in York County April 6 and in Lancaster County April 20.

Under the agreement, Catawba will market the service, the three telcos will install service and a local Internet service provider will provide customer service and an Internet connection.

"We took the best of each company and crossed this thing right down the line," said John Barnes Jr., vice president of development for Catawba.

The service initially will be branded Cable Modem Express. "Once we get the brand name out there, we'll cut that down to CM Express," Barnes said, adding that the company expects to reach a penetration level of about 1.5% of cable subscribers in the first year. The companies anticipate using an affiliated Yellow Pages company to provide some content, although that will not occur in the rollout phase.

The agreement between telcos and cable operators also extends to network architecture. Using Hybrid Networks' one-way modems, users will share a 30 Mb/s downstream channel while sending signals upstream over existing phone lines.

"This is true infotainment because it now gives you the ability just to have fun on the [Internet]."

For Hybrid, the contract is one of the first announced U.S. deployments of its telco-return modem with a traditional cable operator. Previously, the company had concentrated its efforts on wireless cable providers.

Additionally, Hybrid is unveiling a two-way cable modem, which many other vendors have been marketing for more than a year.

"Most of the top 10 [multiple system operators] started implementing with the two-way, so we're catching up a little there," said Sandra DeRodeff, director of marketing for Hybrid.