A GI box deployment and a couple Divi Deployments, (Who's encoder chip does LU use anyway)..................................
mediacentral.com
GTE Media Ventures Rolling Out Digital TV Service in Fla.
By Vince Vittore
Stepping away from its americast partners, GTE Media Ventures expects to deploy a digital video service in Florida in the next few weeks.
"It's supposed to take place the first week in August, but it keeps shifting around," said GTE spokesman Brian Blevins. "It originally was scheduled for the beginning of July, then it was the end. We just want to make sure we've got everything right before we roll it out."
Using Next Level Communications' DCT-1000 set-top and headend encoders from Lucent Technologies, GTE will roll out a digital tier on top of its existing 79-channel TV system in Clearwater. That tier will include a combination of multiplexed premium channels and some new content. Initially, the digital tier will expand GTE's channel lineup to 114 channels with another expansion to 140 by year's end.
"As we get closer to 140, you'll see a lot more [near-video on demand]," Blevins said.
In Clearwater and St. Petersburg, where Time Warner Cable serves some 132,000 customers, GTE passes 125,000 homes and says it plans to reach 400,000 by year's end. GTE also is thinking about adding some interactive content from its mainStreet interactive TV project.
GTE wouldn't detail pricing on the digital tier, but said it's not planning a significant increase over the $15 a month is charges for 64-channel service. "The additional cost is going to be negligible," Blevins said. "Essentially, it's going to be a lot more channels for not much more money."
The telco also is planning to roll out digital service in Ventura County, Calif., by year's end. And to the south, GTE is converting its Cerritos, Calif., system to the americast programming package. That system, acquired when the telco bought out its partner, Apollo Cablevision Inc., last year also will get a digital tier after the Ventura County operation does.
GTE will deploy General Instrument Corp.'s Next Level set-tops in Florida and perhaps in California despite the fact that americast's other partners - Ameritech, BellSouth, GTE, Southern New England Telephone and SBC Communications. - have ordered 3 million set-tops from Zenith Electronics Corp.
"Prior to us joining americast, we had committed to GI, so certainly the GI boxes will be deployed in Florida," Blevins said.
Zenith spokesman John Taylor said the americast contract will be fulfilled and that the vendor plans to deliver a small number of digital boxes in the third quarter.
One of the first deployments of Zenith boxes, which will use Divicom's internal architecture, will be in BellSouth's digital MMDS system in New Orleans.
SBC, which is closing its cable test operations in Richardson, Texas, and San Jose, Calif., is using Thompson set-tops in its digital MMDS launch in Los Angeles.
(July 21, 1997) |
