As far as customers are concerned it's more about the TV than the IP. Quality service remains the killer app

Rad Feuerhelm is your average television customer in Olathe, Kan. The 60-year-old retiree enjoys watching recorded movies and appreciates a crisp picture on his big-screen TV that makes him feel like he's a part of the football game. He's not ancient but not exactly young, he'll tell you. When his grandfather was given the chance to invest in American Telephone & Telegraph for a quarter a share, he declined, saying AT&T would never catch on and make it across the “Indian Nation.” Now, as the telephone company's brand has crept into Feuerhelm's home through his landline telephone, high-speed Internet service and television set, he'll also tell you that he's a satisfied customer. He likes the IPTV service because the guide is intuitive and recording his favorite shows is simple. “If I can do it, anyone can do it,” he said.

Alan Weinkrantz, on the other hand, will admit he's not the typical user. An AT&T customer for nearly three years, Weinkrantz's almost entirely IP house features a home theater with a 2Wire set-top box (STB), digital receiver, 51-inch Sony high-definition television (HDTV), Slingbox and Apple TV, along with a Samsung 28-inch flat panel and Bose system set up in his daughter's room. For about three months, Weinkrantz even had both Time Warner's service and U-verse installed in his home. While he owns a public relations firm representing several technology clients, he has no allegiance to AT&T. Rather, tracking his experiences with the telco has become a hobby of his and the topic of his blog, 3screens.net.

“I've had three ‘ah ha’ moments in my life doing this,” Weinkrantz said. “One was realizing that I had a TV signal going through my home and that my TV in my house has an IP address. That is interesting. My second ‘ah ha’ moment was watching a Coldplay concert in HD over IP. That was pretty cool. And the third ‘ah ha’ moment was having Apple TV in my house disrupting AT&T — me handing Apple $3 for a movie rental on a separate bill, using AT&T's network but not going through them.”

While these are ‘ah ha’ moments that Feuerhelm might never have, the experiences of these different customers illustrates an important point for IPTV providers. It doesn't matter how many channels, features or applications a telco can add. In the end, all that really matters is how customers perceive the value they are getting every time they hit the couch and grab the remote.

Read the rest of this feature at TelephonyOnline.com.