The CRTC has approved Atop Broadband’s application to provide TV services to the Toronto area.
This isn’t the first time that Toronto has seen alternative choices for broadcast distribution undertakings (the official term for a cable company). But it may be the first time we have seen a BDU that plans to deliver its services using over-the-top IPTV.
Atop has said that it expects to be able to deliver multiple HD streams using 2 Mbps per channel. That will lead to almost 1GB per hour per channel. In my household, using Atop as my TV provider would blow out my download cap in a good fall weekend of football and baseball playoffs.
So how will they compete?
Atop says that it has several strategic alliances that will overcome internet “access issues”. Maybe Atop plans to work with one of the alternate ISPs that has colocation space in many of the central offices.
Most importantly, Atop’s plans sends a new signal that there are ways for service providers to deliver high bandwidth services to customers. There is going to be increased choice for TV services.
Perhaps customers and other companies will realize that there are more choices for internet access than they have been led to believe. It isn’t a monopoly marketplace out there and it is encouraging to see entrepreneurs investing in delivering more choice to consumers.
Welcome to the market, Atop Broadband.