Layer3 TV, the Denver-based next-gen cable TV provider, confirmed that it has forged a marketing and technology agreement with NextLight, a municipal service provider that is building out a city-wide fiber network in Longmont, Colo.
The agreement, first reported by the Daily Camera, enables NextLight to add video service to a service bundle that already offers digital voice and broadband service, including a symmetrical, uncapped 1-Gig Internet tier.
Jeff Binder, CEO of Layer3 TV, said Layer3 TV's managed IPTV service for NextLight customers started to become available over the weekend.
According to a web site dedicated to that offer, Layer3 TV is offering video service to NextLight customers under the promotional price of $74 per month, a discount of $25, plus three months of HBO. NextLight competes in the market against incumbents such as Comcast and CenturyLink.
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The public/private partnership represents another potential deployment angle for Layer3 TV, if it were to partner up with other municipal providers that were looking to add an IP-based pay TV service to their bundles.
Binder said Layer3 TV is looking at other opportunities with muni providers that are building their own community networks and looking to create a synthetic services bundle.
UPDATE:For the rollout with NextLight in Longmont, Layer3 TV is using a fleet of Tesla vehicles to perform installs and other customer visits. Layer3 TV has also been using a fleet of electric-powered BMW i3 vehicles.
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Layer3 TV has launched service in the Chicago and Washington, D.C., metro areas, and still has plans to debut service in its hometown of Denver. Its trial in two Texas markets served by Suddenlink Communications (now part of Altice USA) and offered under the “Umio TV” brand is no longer active.
Binder confirmed that NextLight approached Layer3 TV about forming the video partnership, noting that Layer3 TV has established a hub that services the Longmont area. Layer3 TV also operates a “super headend” inside a large data center based in the Denver area that serves its current batch of pay TV markets.
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Construction of NextLight’s city-wide network started in 2014, and the major construction (including the underground work and technical services that include the pulling, splicing and testing of the fiber) is essentially done, according to Scott Rochat, spokesman with Longmont Power & Communications.
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He estimates that about 80% of the network is built out and growing, and that LPC expects to finish it this year.
NextLight sells a symmetrical 1-Gig residential service for $49.95 per month for “Charter” members who sign up within three months of the service being available to them. The standard rate for the 1-Gig service is $99.95 per month, though, under a loyalty discount, NextLight reduces that price to $59.95 for customers who remain on the standard price level for a year.
NextLight has about 38,000 electric service customers, a figure that includes some customers that are based outside the city limits (and beyond the reach of the city-wide fiber network that's being built).
