South Dakota Telco Moves to Cap and Grow with APMAX IPTV Middleware

Jan. 10, 2013 - PRLog -- Clear Lake, SD – Citing how they want to be moving forward in IPTV in the next few years, ITC, a South Dakota Telco serving 15,000 customers in South Dakota and Minnesota, is putting their new IPTV customers onto the Innovative Systems Middleware solution.

According to Ren Preheim, ITC's Network Operations Manager, "We are putting our new customers on the APMAX Middleware in our current FTTH projects, and at present we are seeing fewer operational issues than we do with our legacy system." Preheim adds, "One issue we are encountering is that some customers on our legacy middleware product are hearing about the new system and are wondering when they are going to get the upgrade." With an initial Cap and Grow strategy, ITC will analyze Set Top Box depreciation and gradually phase other customers onto the APMAX Middleware. According to Preheim, with around 6,500 video customers, converting them all over at one time isn't feasible.

ITC's Outside Plant Supervisor, Terry Pederson, feels that the Innovative Middleware provides a better quality of service and more features for their customers. According to Pederson, “I was one of the first to have the APMAX Middleware in my home last spring and noticed the advantages right away. The smooth operation of the Program Guide and the DVR functionality were immediately apparent to me." With hundreds of ITC's subscribers on the new system, several things are standing out as improvements. According to Pederson, the most significant improvement is the ability to quickly solve common input and channel control issues from the ITC service center using the Virtual Remote feature. Pederson also commented that they seldom have to reboot STBs and that it's a very clean “always-on” system.

About ITC
ITC has provided a variety of telecommunications services to small communities in Eastern South Dakota and Western Minnesota for over 50 years. Currently, they provide voice, video, data, and business systems to over 15,000 customers. Visit their website at www.itc-web.com.

About Innovative Systems
Innovative Systems offers the APMAX IMS Application Server, the only platform in the industry that delivers enhanced voice services and IPTV video solutions, as well as eLation, a fully integrated OSS solution which includes billing, financials, and staking and mapping applications. With over 1,200 systems in service throughout North America, Innovative Systems is one of the leading suppliers of telecommunications hardware and software for the Independent Telco Market. For more information, please contact the Innovative Systems Corporate Office at 605-995-6120 or visit www.innovsys.com.