 The City of Pella is joining the chorus of communities who, frustrated by gaps in current broadband service, are looking at a possible local solution. On November 22nd, Pella issued an RFP for a telecommunications utility feasibility study. The City of Pella is seeking proposals for a feasibility study for a municipal telecommunications utility. CLICK HERE to view the RFP on the City of Pella website.
Pella is just the latest Iowa community to take a serious look at municipal broadband. New Hampton and Charles City are just completing feasibility studies. Decorah's feasibility study was completed in August. The City of Belmond is conducting a community broadband study to explore interest in a municipal network before taking the issue to the voters.
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It probably will not come as a shock to most people in the industry, but Wall Street insiders are gloomy about the chances of Windstream and Frontier from staying out of bankruptcy. According to this story Telecompetitor, the outlook is not good for the two companies, both of whom have a significant footprint in Iowa. “The market anticipates that both these companies will go bankrupt in the not-too-distant future, judging by their sagging bond prices and nosebleed credit default swap prices,” said the researchers. The report also questions CenturyLink's financial health, but says CenturyLink "has better prospects as a result of its recent acquisition of Level 3."
The percentage of households that subscribe to a linear pay-TV service, such as cable TV or satellite, has been slowly but steadily dropping over the past few years as more and more OTT options become available to consumers. The question for many operators has been how fast that market will continue to erode and when would it make sense to exit the business. Market research firm The Diffusion Group has quantified the expected shift in a new report. Consequently, legacy pay-TV penetration will fall from 81% of US households in 2017 to 60% in 2030, down 26%. At the same time, virtual pay-TV penetration will grow from roughly 4% of US households to 14%, up 350% but from a very small base. The decline is not unexpected, but perhaps less than some might think. Indeed, operators who have anticipated dropping a video product from their broadband portfolio may want to reconsider whether doing so is prudent when 60% of consumers will still subscribe in 13 years.
The actual report from The Diffusion Group is available for purchase online, or you can read a summary of the findings on the PR Newswire. |
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