SAN DIEGO—SES Americom, the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association officially took the wraps off their partnership that will over the smallest telcos a relatively inexpensive way to offer IPTV.

The three groups, which had been initially talked up the alliance at the Telcom 05 show, are targeting carriers that simply are far too small to consider building their own head end.

Under the plan, to be branded as IP Prime, SES will provide a centralized, satellite-delivered IP video stream from its Vernon Valley, NJ facility. Going over the company’s AMC-9 satellite, telco customers must purchase a video hub, which will receive the signal and then transport it to the carrier’s access network.

SES, which has had a long-standing relationship with NRTC, said the solution is something both associations’ members have been wanting for some time.

“We went in eight months ago and were talking with NRTC when we realized that we had the same vision for the market,” said Bryan McGuirk, president of media solutions for SES Americom. “[Both groups] members were desperately asking for an add-water-and-stir solution.”

The company plans to launch the service in January with four NRTC members running trials. SES also will start IP Prime with MPEG-4 compression.

According to McGuirk, the time benefit gained by starting with less expensive MPEG-2 and then migrating to MPEG-4 as it develops didn’t make any financial sense. The ability to pack more content into a limited stream also is appealing to small carriers.

“It doesn’t make any sense to deliver a 4 Mb/s signal to a telco DSLAM,” he said.

For NTCA, the move is highly aggressive, putting it in position to compete against several traditional vendors in the independent telco market. However, according to Bernadin Arnason, vice president of business development for NTCA, the ability to get into the video market without building a multi-million dollar head end is something association members need.

“They’re really starting to come around to the idea that they’re going to have to compete in multiple markets,” he s