Etex Telephone Cooperative Selects Minerva's Broadband Television Platform

Etex Telephone Cooperative has selected Minerva Networks’ (News - Alert) xTVFusion 5 for Broadband TV platform to offer next generation television services to 40 members of the Texas Lone Star Network at variable bandwidths as low as 3Mbps.

Thanks to this deployment, Etex's customers, as well as those served by TLSN, will now be able to subscribe to advanced television services which were previously unavailable due to the bandwidth limitations of the copper infrastructure.

Officials with Minerva Networks said that the services will include HD-like broadcast television, digital video recording (DVR), video-on-demand (VOD) and Internet TV.

The services, company officials said, will also feature TV widgets for the delivery of RSS news feeds, stocks, weather and traffic information, as well as visual voice mail, caller ID and popular social networking services.

"We chose Minerva because of its proven IPTV (News - Alert) track record and its recent breakthroughs in broadband television," said Danny Kellar, general manager at Etex, in a statement.

Kellar said that Minerva is first to market with a robust next-generation Broadband TV delivery solution designed to maximize service reach while preserving a high quality of experience for subscribers.

Etex Telephone Cooperative has been serving customers in rural northeast Texas since 1952 with the most advanced landline and wireless telecommunications available.

"Innovative operators like Etex and the TLSN members can now take advantage of the very same technologies at the core of over-the-top television initiatives, to reach and delight a much broader set of subscribers," said Mauro Bonomi (News - Alert), CEO of Minerva Networks.

Bonomi said that Etex continues to show leadership in innovative thinking and in delivering advanced services to rural America.

Back in August, Minerva Networks, a provider of software platforms for the delivery of advanced television (TV) services to IP connected devices, had announced that Daniel Trangmar has joined the company as vice president of European Operations.

Trangmar is a twenty-six-year veteran with experience at both large corporations including Sema Group, Ericsson, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (News - Alert) as well as with a variety of innovative technology start-ups.

In his new role, Trangmar will lead Minerva’s European operations to accelerate the company’s growth and drive business results in the European region.