National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative announces that more rural telcos are adopting the innovative and cost-effective, end-to-end IPTV service, IP-PRIME. The announcement came during the first general session of the TelcoTV conference. Through a partnership with NRTC and The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, rural telcos may bring IPTV to rural America through two business opportunities:

1) an end-to-end IPTV service using SES AMERICOM’s IP-PRIME, a centralized, satellite-delivered IPTV distribution solution that includes content transport, headend, and set-top box solutions

2) a programming-only solution for telcos with existing headend facilities or other transport arrangements.

During the general session, Phillips announced the names of telcos that will deliver IP-PRIME to consumers. They are:

• CenCom, Inc., in Jackson, NE. CenCom is a subsidiary of Northeast Nebraska Telephone Company (NNTC), and Emory Graffis is general manager of both the parent and subsidiary. Through CenCom, NNTC will deliver IP-PRIME to its entire service area, 26 communities in rural Nebraska.
• The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Telephone Authority in Eagle Butte, SD, where J. D. Williams is general manager. The C.R.S.T. Telephone Authority currently delivers cable television to two communities on the Cheyenne River Reservation.
• Home Communications, Inc., in Galva, KS. Home Communications is an affiliate of Home Telephone Company, Inc., of which Carla Shearer is president. Chuck Fairchild is Central Manager of Operations. Home Communications will offer IP-PRIME to about 90 percent of its service area.

IP-PRIME originates from the SES AMERICOM IPTV Broadcast Center in Vernon Valley, New Jersey, where video and audio are received and processed for distribution via satellite to IP-PRIME-equipped telco video hubs nationwide. The solution is based on the MPEG-4 digital video standard that offers improved video quality together with greater bandwidth efficiency over the MPEG-2 standard. The MPEG-4 standard makes IP-PRIME particularly ideal for enabling networks to accommodate numerous applications and features, as well as accommodate the explosive growth in HDTV channels.