CenturyLink has no immediate plans to extend IPTV to existing Qwest customers

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) may gain a benefit from adding Qwest's broadband subscribers to its fold, but one thing it won't be doing in the near term is extending its IPTV service to existing Qwest customers anytime soon.

This revelation about IPTV, which was revealed during yesterday's Q1 2011 conference call, is because CenturyLink wants to initially tackle the ongoing customer churn to cable operators and CLECs in Qwest's 14-state territory.  

"We are getting more local -- competing with the CLECs and cable companies who have been taking market share from Qwest," said Karen Puckett, EVP and COO of CenturyLink.

Glen Post, CEO and President of CenturyLink added that the telco will pass 1 million homes by the end of 2011, but they "do not expect any additional IPTV rollouts in new markets."

Of course, Qwest and CenturyLink have always been on different sides of the IPTV fence. While CenturyLink now offers its Prism IPTV service a few select markets, Qwest (an early telco TV pioneer) had been sticking to delivering satellite services and crafting a hybrid Over the Top video vision.

Without the video component, CenturyLink faces some strong cable competition from cable operators like Cox, which offers a 50 Mbps DOCSIS 3.0 tier as part of a triple play bundle in markets like Phoenix, Ariz. What that means is if CenturyLink will eventually need to pull the video trigger in the old Qwest territory to have a more powerful weapon to battle cable.

For more:
- Broadband DSL Reports has this post

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