A group of Oklahoma and Missouri telephone companies is tackling the high cost of head-end equipment through a unique agreement that lets them share expenses.

Six independent telcos — the Seneca, Goodman and Ozark telephone companies, which are all owned by the Mitchell family, along with Granby Telephone, McDonald County Telephone and Le-Ru Telephone — have started buying their video service through MBO Video, a privately held company created by Cimarron Telephone of Oklahoma.

The six independents jointly constructed dual fiber-optic links to MBO's network for redundancy.

Jay Mitchell, president of Seneca Telephone and vice president of SGO Video, the unregulated video subsidiary of the three family-owned companies, said his firm partially financed the cost of rights-of-way and fiber-optic construction by offering video service in trade to the Southwestern Bell customers whose land his network crossed.

“We saved a big chunk of money not buying a headend,” Mitchell said. “We are connected by fiber to MBO's network in Oklahoma, and we have one connection to my network and one to Le-Ru's as a backup. Our three companies operate a fiber-optic ring, and we connect to that.

“I've had [other telcos' customers] ask for the service,” he added. “I do know that if someone is within 15,000 to 16,000 feet of the drop, I will give them video and data if they want it. I can't give them phone service because I'm not a CLEC.”

The video service features 100 TV channels, 45 music channels and a pay-per-view channel — all provided in addition to video and voice, at least in the three telcos' franchise voice area. One by-product of traversing neighboring Bell territory is that customers there are asking for video service as well, he said.