Residents in the western half of Eagle County, Colo., will be among the first U.S. subscribers to get CenturyLink's (NYSE: CTL) Prism TV IPTV service after the county formally renews a franchise agreement with the telco.
The county will also be the smallest franchise area for the TV service, which has launched in markets like Phoenix, Omaha and Las Vegas.
"Since we already have a franchise here, this is an opportunity to do two things--upgrade it and test it in a rural market," said Abel Chavez, CenturyLink's director of state and local government affairs in a story in the Vail Daily newspaper. "In this case, a small mountain community is going to have something that Denver doesn't have yet and it's all going in our existing network; we're not adding to our footprint."
It's not as if everyone in the rural county will be getting it. CenturyLink's service covers the western half of the county, including the towns of Eagle and Gypsum while Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) dominates the eastern half.
The upgraded service promises to offer more high definition channels over a fiber optic network, whole home digital video recording, and in-home iPad connectivity, Chavez said. CenturyLink is also promising faster search and navigation features, VOD and an interactive dashboard.
The service rollout/upgrade has been a while coming, but, after a meeting between county commissioners and phone company reps July 23, it's almost here.
"We've been working on this for five years," Alan Davis, CenturyLink's area operations manager said.
For more:
- the Vail Daily carried this story
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