SBC shakes up local TV service market

The local television services business may change dramatically starting next year when giant SBC Communications Inc.

enters the satellite TV market here.

Sometime in the first quarter of 2004 SBC plans to start offering EchoStar Communications Inc.'s Dish Network to residential customers throughout its 13- state territory, which includes Nevada.

SBC poses a threat to Charter Communications, the area's primary cable provider, as well as much smaller players such as the dozen or so local resellers of the Dish Network.

The telephone company's offering will be called SBC Dish Network - a cobranding strategy that has succeeded for SBC with its digital subscriber line highspeed Internet access service called Yahoo! DSL.

SBC Dish Network customers, though, will deal only with SBC, which will provide installation, service and billing, delivering what a spokesperson for the San Antonio-based company called a "seamless customer experience." One of SBC's competitive advantages is the ability to offer to customers a bundled service consisting of voice, data and TV consolidated onto a single monthly bill.

That doesn't concern Charter, which currently offers digital video and broadband Internet access.

"Voice is just around the corner," according to Craig Watson, a western-area spokesman for the St.

Louis-based cable provider.

Charter is currently testing VoIP - voice service over the Internet's IP protocol - in Wisconsin, he said.

"There is no question the technology works.

The Wisconsin test is just to make sure we're comfortable with it."

He declined to say when VoIP would be widely available from the company.

Watson said Charter offered other advantages as well, such as a local presence that includes 400 employees in the state.

But Charter has been widely criticized for poor customer service.

The Reno City Council, for one, decided last year the problem was bad enough that it created the Citizen Cable Compliance Committee to monitor the provider and help the city renegotiate its cable contract.

A handful of Dish Network resellers already established in the area now will be David to SBC's Goliath.

But at least one reseller may dodge SBC's bullet since the telephone company's service will be available only for residential customers.

Comp USA in Reno focuses its efforts on institutional and business users.

Its Dish Network customers include the Regional Transportation Commission and Arrowcreek Golf Course, which use satellite TV service to videoconference.