Joining the list of public utilities providing advanced telecommunications services, Ketchikan Public Utilities, in Southeast Alaska, said it will begin providing IPTV services to its telecom subscribers. Designed to offer a range of interactive features as well as applications from third parties, the service is based on the Home Entertainment 3.0 platform from Nokia Siemens Networks.
NSN’s IPTV platform “opens new business opportunities for us by enhancing our video capabilities with High Definition content, personal video recording, and on-demand and interactive services,” said Dan Lindgren, assistant manager for the telecommunications unit at Ketchikan Public Utilities.
A municipal electricity supplier, KPU was founded in 1932 and moved into telecom in 1935, bringing phone service to Ketchikan, a remote fishing town on the Tongass Narrows in Southeast Alaska. In that way, it became a pioneer for many publicly owned power and light companies, which are using existing rights-of-way and “last-mile” connections to homes and businesses to begin offering high-speed Internet access and other telecom services.
Other utilities making that shift include Bristol Virginia Utilities, which has deployed a fiber-to-the-home network to bring broadband services to residents of Bristol, in southwestern Virginia, and Lafayette Utilities System, in Lafayette, Louisiana.
