Canby Telcom Launches HD Offering Powered by IP-PRIME HD-4 Service in Central Oregon

Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Canby Telcom’s Customers Have Access to 36 Channels of HD

PRINCETON, N.J. & CANBY, Ore. — SES AMERICOM and Canby Telcom, a member of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), announced today that Canby’s IPTV customers can now access 36 channels of High Definition (HD) programming, including more than two dozen channels delivered to Canby via IP-PRIME®, from marquee programmers such as Discovery, Disney, Showtime, Fox News, ESPN, A&E and the Food Network, plus a handful of local broadcast services.

IP-PRIME delivers a comprehensive roster of high-quality standard and high-definition programming in MPEG-4 format to operators via a single satellite antenna. The IP-PRIME HD-4™ service delivers up to 40 national high-definition channels to operators looking to add high quality HD programming to their existing IPTV service. In addition to the HD-4 offering, the IP-PRIME full transport solution offers hundreds of programming channels to operators without the high capital and operating expenses required to build and operate an IPTV headend.

Keith Galitz, President and General Manager of Canby Telcom, said: “We are committed to bringing our customers the latest information, communications and entertainment services to enhance their personal and professional lives. In November 2005, Canby became the first provider of IP television in Oregon, and with HD-4, we are the first to deliver IPTV/HD over copper and fiber to our customers in Canby, Oregon.” He continued, “As more consumers install HD-ready screens, their expectations and demands for HD programming grow with every passing week – IP-PRIME’s HD-4 is an efficient and best of all, high quality solution that meets that demand.”

“About a year ago, the IP-PRIME team recognized that the IPTV pioneers who initiated their TV services with MPEG-2 encoding, were challenged to deliver HD channels over their networks,” said Jim Ducay, COO of SES AMERICOM. He continued: “Through our close relationships with the programmers we realized that the number of HD channels was going to grow exponentially, so we introduced the IP-PRIME HD-4 solution in late 2007. The 32 or 40 channel HD-4 service can be up and running in 60 days, and our MPEG-4 HD picture quality is stunning.”

NRTC, in partnership with the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association (NTCA) and SES AMERICOM, offers IP-PRIME to its members in rural America.