SureWest Goes SDV In KC

SureWest Communications has rolled out BigBand’s Switched Digital Video (SDV) offering in its Kansas City market to optimize and reclaim network bandwidth.

The operator is counting on SDV to help it move forward with new products and services without having to convert to an all-IP network right away or to rely on digital analog converters (DTAs).
 
According to Ken Johnson, vice president/CTO at SureWest, “The solution supports our long-term vision of portability, where any content can be delivered to any device both inside and outside the home. In addition to meeting our needs for HD expansion, BigBand’s SDV solution helps us stay competitive and paves the way for us to support a broader base of connected devices, including PCs, mobile devices, IP set-top boxes and tablets.”

As a result of the SDV deployment, SureWest launched 50 additional HD channels in the Kansas City market. It also says it now can:

>> Expand the delivery of any content to any device in the home with virtually no limit to the programming and personalization that can be made available to subscribers.
>> Create a “fat pipe” to support and deliver more interactive applications.
Free spectrum for the monetization of new data, interactive and program services.

“We expect to move all of our networks incrementally over time toward broadband technologies that fully exploit optical fiber and other new advances as they emerge,” Johnson adds. “We have shown that in our California networks already. We will manage this migration in a cost effective way while continuing to deliver high quality and choice to our customers.”