IPTV Hits the Heartland

摘要

While the efforts of large telephone companies like AT&T and Verizon to offer television service in major markets have been well-documented, small telcos serving rural areas are quietly embarking on a TV revolution of their own. Such "Tier III" telcos, which may only have a few thousand customers (and generally serve less than 100,000 access lines), are using IP-based networks and advanced MPEG-4 compression to launch TV services and offer a full bundle of voice, data and video service, just like their larger cable and telco brethren.