SES & Cisco Help Reach the Last Mile
The news is just starting to filter out, but today SES-Americom announced a major partnership with Cisco Systems to bring affordable television and video content to the millions of citizens in rural America using the Internet through the National Rural Telephone Cooperative. The video coursing through this new service will be provided by SES own IP-PRIME, of course. This is exciting news (and not just because we’re directly affiliated with SES), representing a real step-forward in getting Internet services down to infamous "last mile" consumers that often don’t get access to the communication services that many of us take for granted in more urban areas.
Some of the largest adopters of satellite television technology, man "country folk" around the US have been left out of the explosion in high speed, two-way internet services that are de rigueur in the our cities and suburbs. While satellite Internet technology is available, its speed is often hampered by dial-up upload speeds (which include telling your browser where you want to go) ultimately limiting its speed. Advancements in IPTV and joint-ventures like this deal provide additional incentive to get high-speed, wired internet connections to those who often feel isolated, geographically and socially, from the rest of the country and ultimately ensures that everyone, whether they live on the island of Manhattan or in Manhattan, KS, gains speedy access to the network that’s changing our lives.
For more infromation, you might want to check out blogger Robert Scoble’s interview with Cisco CEO John Chambers about the IPTV below or, via Networkworld, see how the system demoed in Europe last week.
