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Published on: 4/15/2006
Last Visited: 8/5/2007
Heartland Communications at 1301 Broadway is the David who's ready to do battle with Goliath AT&T-BellSouth, says co-founder Todd Heinrich.
"It's a big monster.I don't know if it's in fact going full circle from deregulation, but it seems that way," he said.
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Expanding: Todd Heinrich's Heartland Communications has installed this large satellite dish as part of a plan to offer Internet TV in the area.
The markets are within a three-mile circle of each of the communities, and each area potentially has several thousand customers, Heinrich said.
Those testing the service for free or at minimal fees will have devices similar to cable boxes on their TVs, capable of video on demand and broadened community access programming, as well as traditional cable or satellite channels, Heinrich said.
"We'll be capable of allowing local schools to have dedicated channels to broadcast basketball games and other events if they put a camera in that setting," he said."We want to be very community focused and community oriented."Heartland is negotiating to build the service into 80 to 90 percent of the test areas within five years, starting later this year, Heinrich said.
"Our goal is to bring telephone, Internet and TV service to consumers of the Paducah area, including Reidland and Lone Oak, as a provider of choice."There are similar plans in southern Illinois for Metropolis, Carbondale, Marion and Anna-Jonesboro, he said, and Heartland is talking with another company to expand the services into Harrisburg, Eldorado and Murphysboro.
Services in Paducah and the larger southern Illinois cities would be sold retail by Heartland.In smaller southern Illinois towns, they would be sold to local Internet providers for resale.
"The stranglehold (of giant mergers) is not necessarily happening to us directly,"Heinrich said."It's happening to the small Internet provider who hasn't learned to get into the telephone and Internet industry."Heinrich said Heartland has five smaller Internet providers lined up to
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That gave Heartland a $3.5 million cash infusion to help expand equipment that Heinrich says is nine times faster than traditional high-speed Internet.
"That's enough to get three streams of TV service simultaneously through the broadband Internet connection to the home," he said.
Heartland already has an arrangement to resell cellular phone service in the region through Nextel partners, a Nextel subsidiary, Heinrich said.He said the anticipated monthly cost for the "triple-play" phone, Internet and TV service is $100 to $120.That compares with a longtime target set by AT&T of $100 for those three services plus cellular service.Comcast, the nation's largest cable firm, is preparing to release a $99 package of everything but cellular service, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"I find it hard to believe that all four services would be for a hundred-dollar bill," Heinrich said."What isn't stated is that would be a very minimal package, I don't care whose package it is.He said the competition is fierce because AT&T and BellSouth dominate local and long-distance phone service, and have a big chunk of cellular service because they jointly own Cingular Wireless.
"TV is a stretch for them at this time," he said."We'll be ready in the next 60 days."Eventually Heartland will tie Internet access to the TV through a wireless keyboard, eliminating the need for a home computer, Heinrich said.
"Our TV becomes your computer for Internet, e-mail access and video applications," he said."The ultimate goal is to take true videoconferencing into the TV so you can watch and talk with your mom on the other side if she has that service.That's a year or two away."
Deregulation has allowed Heartland and other local phone providers to lease BellSouth's central office equipment.Heinrich said the Internet TV expansion will largely be through tapping into Paducah Power System's 62-mile fiber-optic network at 36 points to route the service into neighborhoods.
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