Hawaiian Telcom bets on IPTV

by billso on Saturday, 14 November 2009

Hawaiian Telcom, the state’s major ILEC, is one step closer to resolving its current bankruptcy filing. Federal Bankruptcy Court Judge Lloyd King approved a reorganization plan yesterday that reduces the company’s debt load from US$1.1 billion to $300 million.

HawTel will market their long-delayed television service as Next Generation Television or NGTV according to an article in today’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin titled HawTel bankruptcy plan OK’d.

HawTel is planning to bundle IPTV with its existing landline and DSL services to create a “triple play” similar to what Oceanic Time Warner Cable offers.

As more viewers decided to watch video on demand (VOD) through Hulu, YouTube and other services, telecom companies are scrambling to offer enhanced VOD solutions to their subscribers. IPTV does provide a good platform for VOD services, but it can be tricky to implement.

Most television viewers in Hawaii live on Oahu, but the state’s PUC may expect HawTel to provide NGTV service on the neighbor islands on an accelerated timetable. Oceanic’s cable TV services on the neighbor islands lag behind Oahu in terms of reliability, capacity and overall speed.

Of course, Oceanic has offered its bundle for a few years and has plenty of customers locked in to the company’s DVRs and services.

Clearwire will roll out its WiMax 4G Clear service on Oahu next month, as described at bytemarks.org, and is already testing wireless IPTV in mainland markets.

There’s one more major hurdle for HawTel’s reorganization - the state Public Utilities Commission must review and approve the reorganization plan. That process could take up to 6 months, and may take some twists and turns as the state grapples with the current recession.

Image courtesy of darkseed on Flickr via a Creative Commons license.