CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is returning--if it ever really left--to its Colorado roots in seeking to deliver IPTV service in Colorado Springs.
The telco, which is based in Louisiana, offers IPTV in eight U.S. cities. Colorado Springs would mark the company's first major deployment in the Centennial State.
The connection to Colorado is obvious. CenturyLink merged with Denver-based Qwest Communications in 2011 so it's almost like coming home to go before the Colorado Springs City Council to seek a franchise agreement to compete with incumbent cable operator Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA).
The earliest the city can approve the franchise agreement is at its July 10 meeting. If, as expected, that happens, CenturyLink plans to start offering service in early 2013 to a "minimum of 22 percent of the city within three years," the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.
CenturyLink customers can already get video as part of their triple-play bundle--but it comes via DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV). If those DirecTV subscribers want--or really if they're tied into a contract for that--they can continue that package, Kenny Wayatt, CenturyLink's president for the Mountain region told the newspaper.
Otherwise, it's on to IPTV, which, Wyatt told the Gazette, "really allows us to do a lot of things."
At the top of the list of things IPTV brings is competition with Comcast, which, spokeswoman Cindy Parsons told the newspaper, is OK "as long as new entrants are not given a regulatory advantage and are required to serve all communities as we do today."
While Colorado Springs would be the first major city to get CenturyLink IPTV, the telco already has a franchise agreement with Monument and is seeking agreements with Fountain and permission to serve unincorporated El Paso County.
For more:
- see the Colorado Springs Gazette story
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