MTA brings digital TV to Mat Valley

By JEN RANSOM-Frontiersman reporter

PALMER -- Matanuska Telephone Association announced Thursday that the cooperative will be adding digital television service, or DTV, to its list of features available to owners and members in the Matanuska Susitna and Eagle River

areas.

MTA celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, serving more than 38,000 customers throughout a 10,000-square-mile radius. DTV, which runs through fiber-optic phone lines and provides DVD-type quality television to its

subscribers, is only available in 50 or so companies in

the United States. MTA is the first to provide the service in Alaska.

"DTV provides all the things we've dreamed about," said Keith Southard, MTA's DTV business unit manager. "This digital technology is superior in design than any competition on the market."

DTV will provide 195 channels plus movies-on-demand, where one literally visits a virtual movie rental section of their television and, with a flick of the clicker, can instantly watch more than 100 available movies with DVD quality for a small fee. DTV also provides individual programmable channel guides for each member of a household and content filtering technology so parents can protect children from being exposed to adult television.

Southard says the advantages DTV has over satellite and cable television include picture quality, local channel broadcasting and the ability to change your subscriber package instantly with the DTV program. Though MTA has not announced the price of the new service, scheduled to be available in Wasilla, Palmer, Eagle River and Big Lake areas this fall, Southard says that tentative plan is to have no sign-up fee for this service, and a monthly price competitive with other television providers.

"We will be competitive with what's already available," said Southard. "But the value will be much more compelling."

MTA expects to have DTV available to most of its members by the end of 2004, including areas such as Willow and Talkeetna. There will be a presentation of the new technology at the next MTA member meeting on June 18.