SureWest, Paul Bunyan Telephone Tackle IPTV Challenges

“Whether that’s [for our] 5ESS switch, VoIP switch, voice mail or IP platform, video integrates elegantly into that,” he said.

Video, provisioned correctly, is just another part of a hierarchy of 20 different network elements with which the OSS is interfacing. Minerva has a set of published APIs and each network device has its own customized adapter specific to the published APIs. “The information goes through the distributed workflow model down to our centralized provisioning platform and reaches out to the different devices,” Riley said.

Thus, he said, there can be “a myriad of different connection protocols and information-type flows, and Minerva is just one of those.”

On top of that, SureWest has built side-on applications for fallout scenarios that the existing flow doesn't adequately address so “there’s a process for the technical support folks to go directly to the device if they have to,” Riley said.

In addition to believing the provisioning of video to be less complex than telecom services, Riley, in his contrarian view, also thinks having an all-IP network for voice, video and data is more difficult than the traditional RF video environment.

“What we have to do to turn customers’ systems up is technically more complicated,” he said. On the flip side, though, “as it matures, it’s going to get better and better. There are a lot of neat capabilities that we’re going to be able to leverage in an IP network that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise.”

Those capabilities fall under the IPTV 2.0 umbrella that Riley cautions is still several steps away.

“There are no software packages today to do that,” he said. “You could modify certain CRM products and certain billing products to facilitate this, but a lot of that you couldn’t,” he said. “Minerva has put together all the modules inside the back office to go through each step. You decide what you want to do, go in and do it and three or four minutes later it’s up and running and available.”

One of the reasons telcos are so anxious to move to IPTV 2.0 is the success they’ve had with the very basic applications integration, most notably the wildly popular caller ID on the TV. IPTV, they believe, gives them an instant advantage over more traditional cable television providers who still are struggling to get beyond interactive television.

Executing the Handoff

“[Caller ID] has been our selling point since we started doing video,” said Leo Anderson, digital services supervisor for Paul Bunyan Telephone Cooperative (PBT). “It becomes so ingrained that it’s our most popular overlay.”

PBT uses the National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) as its billing system and then interfaces between Minerva and NISC with the Enhanced Telecommunications’ (ETI) Triad system.

PBT can generate a service order in billing and hand it off to Triad, which has enough intelligence to figure where to send the order. In PBT’s case, that is Minerva, which knows what services a customer has and is allowed to use. “Then our CSRs can put in an order for HBO and a minute later HBO turns up at the house. It’s all automatic,” Anderson said.