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Verizon starts TV service today

Verizon flips a switch in Temple Terrace to join the competition for providing television service.

By DAVE GUSSOW
Published December 6, 2005

	[Times photos: Joseph Garnett Jr.]
	The super head end control center, known as SHE-1, looks like something the National Aeronautics and Space Administration would use, with a wall full of monitors and people checking computer screens at their desks. Technicians will track trouble from this monitoring room.
	The super head end, or SHE-1, wall monitor displays various channels that Verizon will provide its Temple Terrace customers.
	Verizon may sell directories business

TEMPLE TERRACE - The next skirmish in an increasingly contentious fight between phone and cable TV companies begins today when Verizon Communications flips the switch to provide TV service to this Hillsborough County community of 22,000.

But don't expect to be shocked and awed by a rapid deployment throughout the bay area: Verizon has only one other franchise agreement in this area - for unincorporated Manatee County - and only 43 agreements across the country.

In fact, only about 20 percent of Temple Terrace will initially have access to Verizon's FiOS service. Verizon began laying the fiber optic lines for the system here in January and received a franchise agreement from the city in May.

"This is just the beginning," Verizon spokesman Bob Elek said.

For consumers, the competition eventually will mean more choice and likely better pricing on TV, as well as phone, Internet and wireless services, which will be offered in bundles.

Cable companies - including Bright House Networks, the dominant cable company in this area, and Knology in Pinellas - already are offering phone services and are forming alliances with wireless carriers, such as Sprint.

In Keller, Texas, where Verizon started FiOS service in September, the cable TV incumbent, Charter Communications, began offering lower-priced introductory offers.

In the bay area, Verizon boosted the speed and cut the price of its digital subscriber line service for Internet access, while Bright House increased its access speed.

Verizon and Bright House have been exchanging barbs for months as competition has intensified. Bright House filed a complaint with the state Public Service Commission at one point. Verizon responded by talking about the rise of cable TV rates.

On Monday, Bright House spokesman Dan Ballister said simply, "We look forward to the challenge ahead," voicing confidence in its offerings and ability to provide good customer service.

Not all cable companies have been as cordial. In New York, Cablevision has fought Verizon's entry into some markets and criticized at least one town's mayor who supported a franchise for Verizon, according to the Wall Street Journal and other publications.

Jonathan Hurd, vice president of Adventis, a Boston telecom consulting firm, says Verizon's investment of billions of dollars in upgrading its network and offering TV is an absolute necessity, both to defend its traditional phone revenue as well as to attract new customers.

"When consumers think about buying these services, a lot of times it's the video and entertainment aspects of it that really sway their decisions," Hurd said.

Research also shows an opportunity, Hurd says, with many consumers expressing unhappiness with traditional video experiences and 85 percent saying there's nothing to watch one or more times a week.

"If Verizon can offer a more differentiated service than the traditional cable or satellite experience, then they have an opportunity to make some significant inroads into the market," Hurd said.

Initially, Verizon will be offering a comparable number of channels for less money. And it will tout its fiber network as a way to offer more - such as a package of international channels - than traditional cable providers can handle.

For example, Verizon's new service will include an "expanded basic" TV package for $39.95 a month that includes about 180 channels. In contrast, Bright House's "standard service" of cable offerings offers 78 channels for $46.49 a month (See chart, right).

At a news conference this morning, Verizon officials will show off the "super head end" control center, known as SHE-1, which looks like something NASA would use, with a wall full of monitors and people checking computer screens at their desks.

Tom Cruden, the senior staff consultant for video operations whose TV experience goes back to the GTE Americast (now Knology) system in Pinellas, even talks like a mission commander, frequently using the words "backup, redundancy and reliability."

If a problem is detected, the system automatically will switch to a backup. That includes anything on the network, from a satellite dish to even SHE-1, where operations would be transferred automatically to a second national control center in Bloomington, Ill.

"All launches are exciting," Cruden said. "But the difference (with FiOS) is the vast change in technology."

-- Information from Times files was used in this report.

-- Dave Gussow can be reached at dgussow@sptimes.com or 727 445-4165.

[Last modified December 6, 2005, 13:17:02]