SkyStream ®, a leader in IP video delivery solutions, announced at the SUPERCOMM 2005 tradeshow that Progressive Rural Telephone has selected SkyStream's Mediaplex-20 headend to deliver an IP-based television and music service across its access lines in central Georgia.

In a survey of existing voice and data customers, the rural telco found that 80 to 90 percent of respondents would be interested in replacing their current TV service with one from the local phone company. "These findings corroborate other studies showing that people would rather get TV service from their phone company than a cable company," said Andy Lovit, vice president of worldwide field operations, SkyStream. "Progressive's customers are on the cusp of a nationwide trend toward telco TV, even where television is available from local cable and satellite providers."

In response to customer demand, the telco will expand its offering to include television in the coming months. Progressive will deliver broadcast television and music channels in MPEG-2 over ADSL2+ using SkyStream's Mediaplex-20 ^TM video headend. The industry's densest headend, Mediaplex incorporates 48 MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 AVC encoders in a single chassis.

"Mediaplex is a single piece of hardware that lowers costs and is easy to upgrade. Other vendors sell five or six single-function boxes that do what Mediaplex does in a single chassis. We were extremely impressed with the density of SkyStream's hardware," said Larry Stevenson, central office supervisor at Progressive. "Mediaplex's superior picture quality and SkyStream's excellent value were major factors in our selection of Mediaplex for our IPTV service."

Progressive's customers are mainly residential subscribers with one or more phone lines. Progressive has also rapidly added subscribers to its Internet service, installing additional DSL lines daily to keep up with demand. Progressive's IPTV service will initially include 141 broadcast television channels, six local channels and 35 music channels, with plans to add local programming in the future.

After conducting a trial with a limited number of subscribers, Progressive will make its TV service available to all of its customers in August.