CenturyTel announced plans Monday to test market video service in the La Crosse area next spring, putting the local phone company in competition with cable provider Charter Communication.
"After considerable analysis, CenturyTel is confident we are technologically capable of providing a video service that meets and exceeds our customers' expectations," said Duane Ring, Midwest region vice president.
But customers who just want cheaper cable TV may find they have to buy high-speed Internet and local phone service in one package.
In select neighborhoods in La Crosse, Onalaska, Holmen and West Salem, CenturyTel customers, will be able to get a package of voice, high-speed Internet and digital television services through their existing copper phone lines as early as March or April 2004, Ring said. How soon the service expands depends on how smoothly the system works, he said.
CenturyTel hasn't set a price yet for the so-called "triple play" service of phone, internet and video, Ring said. Patricia Cameron, a company spokeswoman, said the price would be "competitive with offerings within the market."
Charter Communications, the nation's third-largest provider of broadband services, has packages with digital cable TV and highspeed Internet service starting at $89.89 in La Crosse. Charter offers telephone service in some markets, but not the Coulee Region.
Cable TV expert Barry Orton, a professor of telecommunications at UW-Madison, said CenturyTel's move into video could push Charter into offering local phone service in the area. "You could have head-to-head competition across the board," Orton said.
CenturyTel hasn't chosen the test neighborhoods yet, but said they'll likely be three to four square blocks each, Ring said. They will be chosen, in part, so CenturyTel can test the service on a variety of different equipment, he said.
Delivering television over telephone wires is nothing new to the Coulee Region. Ace Communications Group has been offering video service since 2002 in La Crescent, Minn. Small phone companies and cooperatives around Wisconsin also have begun offering the service in areas that are too rural to attract a traditional cable service.
Onalaska Mayor Jim Bialecki called Monday's announcement "good news. People have been looking for more consumer choice. In areas where they have choice, there's more programming and (lower) rates."
Orton said the competition could trigger a price and customer service war, "which is good while it lasts, but then the winner sets the price."
Bialecki said that some time ago he spoke with Hiawatha Broadband Communications, which now competes with Charter in Winona, Minn., about coming to Onalaska. "They were looking at an $18 million investment" to get into the market, Bialecki said.
By using its existing wires, "what CenturyTel's doing makes more sense," Bialecki said. "We welcome their trial."
Orton said CenturyTel could be at a disadvantage when it comes to cable programming because it can't negotiate the kind of volume discounts with providers like ESPN and HBO that a giant like Charter can. Orton also said the cities where CenturyTel offers the new service will have to decide whether they want to require the company to get a cable television franchise, which could add to CenturyTel's costs. Across the country, telephone and cable companies are vying to provide homes with a combination of voice, data and video services with one wire and one bill.
"CenturyTel recognizes the community's interest in receiving competitive. video services from a company they know and trust said Glen F. Post III, chairman and CEO of CenturyTel.
"We are pleased to select the La Crosse area as the site for our video trial," Post said.
CenturyTel, headquartered in Monroe, La., has 695,000 customers in Wisconsin and more than 3 million customers in 22 states.
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