SureWest expands channel lineup with BigBand

BigBand Networks announced today that SureWest has deployed BigBand’s Switched Digital Video (SDV) offering in its Kansas City serving area to expand its channel lineup.

The deployment was actually made just over a year ago, but SureWest has been building on that initial deployment, most recently adding more BigBand QAM edge devices to further expand the number of channels offered, said BigBand National Accounts Manager Frank Priebe in an interview.

Today’s announcement comes less than a month after Arris announced plans to acquire BigBand before the end of the year (CP: Arris to acquire BigBand Networks).

SureWest also considered DTA option
SureWest offers triple play services in the Kansas City area in part using fiber to the home facilities (CP: SureWest pledges to expand FTTH in Kansas markets) and in part using an HFC network it obtained through its acquisition of Everest Broadband some years ago. About two years ago, SureWest realized it did not have sufficient bandwidth on its HFC platform to support all the channels it wanted to offer and would need to make an infrastructure upgrade, Priebe said.

At that time the carrier considered using digital analog converters (DTAs) to address this need, but the decision was made to use the BigBand SDV solution instead because a DTA approach “would cost a lot more” and with DTA SureWest “would be limited to one-way devices in the customer home” and would have to make the upgrade on a “home-by-home basis,” said Priebe.

By adding SDV, SureWest now can offer more channels, including high-definition channels, by delivering the less popular channels via SDV, which essentially streams the less popular channels to the customer in response to the customer’s request. End user customers are unaware that some channels are being delivered in a different method than others.

BigBand’s SDV offering consists of a server and software deployed in the head-end, as well as QAM edge devices installed in the head-end or in the neighborhood. By adding more QAM devices, SureWest can expand the number of channels it can support.

SureWest also liked the fact the SDV platform could facilitate its ability to deliver programming to mobile devices at some point in the future, noted Priebe.