Cablefax The Magazine - July 2012 - 30

2012 Top Ops Awards
INDEPENDENT PROJECT LAUNCH OF THE YEAR
BendBroadband
Usually this award honors a single person, company or technology.
But in the case of BendBroadband, we had to give
props for three major project launches. In 2011 alone, the
independent operator introduced a new whole-home DVR
service, opened a major new data center facility and began
offering fi xed broadband LTE services to customers outside
its traditional footprint. That's a triple whammy of video innovation,
commercial services expansion and wireless growth.
It's also plenty deserving of this year's Independent Project
Launch of the Year award.
BendBroadband's CEO Amy Tykeson cites three factors that
help the company determine whether it should introduce a new
product or service: A business or customer need, timing and
opportunity, and vendor capability. In the case of BendBroadband's
new Alpha whole-home DVR service, the determining
factors were customer need and a close relationship with technology
vendor Arris. The brand name Alpha, in fact, became
a little bit of an inside joke because BendBroadband was the
alpha customer for Arris' whole-home DVR solution. The cable
company didn't know it would be fi rst when it branded the
service, but the name worked out.
" With these newer products... the biggest challenge was
being fi rst to the space, not having a lot of options in terms of
what we could deploy with consumer premises equipment, "
says BendBroadband VP of technology Wade Holmes. " [We
go] in with the expectation that we're both there to learn.
We're both there to make the product better and to get a
launch, versus we want a perfect product out of a shiny,
shrink-wrapped box ready to go day one. That's not how we
start the game. "
The story behind BendBroadband's launch of the Vault Data
Center is a bit different, however. In that case, the driving factors
were business need, and an unexpected opportunity. Just
as the cable company found it needed more colocation space
and an upgraded network operations facility, it also discovered
that the St. Charles Medical Center was looking to move back
to the area and needed a new data center site. The two organizations
joined forces, and the Vault was born.
" With the Vault, if we hadn't [started two years ago], I think
that we would have missed out on the momentum that we
have now with that sector, and these possibilities that that
opens up for us as a company moving into... the small, medium
and enterprise-class customer segment, " says Tykeson.
Then there's BendBroadband's LTE-based fi xed wireless
broadband service. Once again, that opportunity was a matter
of timing. BendBroadband snapped up a chance to buy
wireless spectrum in 2006, and launched its fi rst wireless
offering in 2009 based on HSPA+. The company started its
upgrade to LTE in 2011.
The bottom line with all of BendBroadband's new services
Fast Facts
✦ Oregon is a hotspot for data centers in part because of its
cool temperatures.
✦ The average download speed for BendBroadband's 4G LTE
broadband service is 8 Mbps.
✦ Alpha officially launched in December of 2011 with Arris'
six-tuner HD DVR and Moxi software.
is that they are an investment in the company's future, and all
of them are showing positive results. Alpha topped 7% of all
deployed DVR units within three months of launch. The Vault
became the fi rst data center in Oregon to achieve Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certifi cation.
And since its launch last November, BendBroadband's 4G/
LTE service has rapidly gained market share, already boasting
penetration rates of more than 10% in its network footprint.
Success is worth rewarding, so we didn't stop at honoring
only one of BendBroadband's 2011 launches. With Alpha,
the Vault, and new LTE services, BendBroadband makes it
worth bending the rules. ✴
- Mari Silbey
30
cablefaxmag.com
July 2012
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Cablefax The Magazine - July 2012

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