In June 5-11 issue
By Derek Aaron
Times Journal Reporter

JAMESTOWN - One of Duo County Telecom's newest features, TV Caller ID, has gotten off to an impressive start with and appeal to both older and younger generations, according to Eric West, marketing director at the cooperative.

"We partnered with (Integra5) to be able to provide our TV Caller ID feature on our telephone service and our basic digital TV service that has the cable boxes," West said.

"So in a sense, any customer that has both our telephone service with deluxe caller ID and our video service with cable boxes, the caller ID information will appear on their television sets during an incoming call," he said.

The feature has become very popular with Duo County's customers that have both the phone and video service, according to West.

"It's quite a value-added feature for having those two services with us," he said.

"It's an added convenience for the elderly population but also to the younger generation, with the caller ID on their wireless phones, they like the technical aspect of it while they're sitting there watching their program."

West said the ID message on the television was brief but it also gave an adequate amount of time to see who is calling.

Both the name and number show up on the television screen, just as it would on a regular Caller ID, West said.

Duo County's purchase of Integra5's Converged Services Platform allowed them to roll out the new feature in February to increase competitive differentiation and enhance the value of its higher-tier digital bundle.

A Massachusetts company, Integra5 is a global leader in blending triple and quad play bundles into converged services, which allows more telecommunication services to be added to more technological devices.

"We're always looking at new technologies to integrate services," West said "such as unified messaging where e-mails can go over phones and phone messages can go through e-mail."

West said Duo County was looking at a number of various new services, including unified messaging, that could be of use to their customers in the latter part of this year, if all goes according to plan.

Duo County provides advanced communications services to residential and commercial customers, including digital cable TV; high-speed Internet; text paging; and local, long-distance and cellular voice services. Duo County is bundling the new TV Caller ID service with its digital TV and advanced phone services.

"Duo County Telephone Cooperative has consistently explored new and exciting ways to increase the value of our services and deliver the best possible experience to our subscribers," said Mark Henry, Duo County's vice president of Operations.

"The i5 CSP allows us to enhance and differentiate our cable, Internet and telephone services today and will support a seamless transition to an IPTV environment in the future, if we should decide to move in that direction."

The i5 CSP, where the TV Caller ID originated, enables service providers to "blend the bundle" by combining communications and content from voice, video, data and wireless networks into new, real-time converged services that span TVs, PCs and landline and mobile phones, according to an Integra 5 press release.

The release states that operators can launch new applications, such as PC Caller ID, SMS Text Messaging and Voicemail Message Waiting to TVs and PCs, that include personalization and active call control features in a matter of weeks, versus months. Its network-based, distributed architecture scales to support millions of subscribers and requires no truck rolls or new in-home equipment.

"In this highly competitive environment, forward-looking operators like Duo County are taking steps to establish a long-term strategy that emphasizes service innovation" said Ed Perry, Integra5's vice president of Sales. "By harnessing the power of the i5 CSP, operators lay a foundation for the continuous rollout of new, converged services that add value, convenience and simplicity to the subscriber experience."

Integra5's i5 Converged Services Platform, or i5 CSP, blends voice, video, data and mobile services into new communications and content applications for delivery across TVs, PCs and other devices.

The i5 CSP works in today's IPTV and cable networks and can be seamlessly integrated into future IMS environments. Integra5 is headquartered in Woburn, Mass., and has a research and development office in Rehovot, Israel. For more information, visit www.integra5.com.

Duo County is a 15,000 member-owned cooperative located in Jamestown and serves four counties in the Lake Cumberland area. Duo County provides state-of-the-art telecommunications through local telephone service, long distance, high-speed Internet, cellular, paging and video offerings. Visit www.duo-county.com for more information on Duo County Telephone Cooperative and its many services.