Midco, which offer high-speed internet to 480,0000 homes, said it is introducing Midco Wi-Fi, using Plume’s HomePass technology.

The cloud-based, open-source technology delivers faster, smarter and more reliable Wi-Fi service throughout the home, the companies said.

“Our goal has been to bring the industry’s best-managed Wi-Fi solution to our customers,” said Tom McAdaragh, Midco president & COO. “As customers continue to demand higher speeds and the number of connected devices grows, home networks demand a flexible, adaptive Wi-Fi solution. Midco Wi-Fi is just that. It’s your home Wi-Fi network, designed to keep you connected and put the power in your hands.”

Midco services customers in Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Midco Wi-Fi leverages an advanced Saas Experience Platform that includes OpenSync smart home framework in conjunction with Plume’s recently updated HomePass mobile app.

“Plume is extremely proud to help Midco deliver an unparalleled internet experience by laying the foundation of fast, reliable, secure, and adaptive whole-home Wi-Fi, and layering highly personalized user and guest controls, AI-driven cybersecurity, and more on top,” said Erdem Mustafa, VP, sales, at Plume. “In partnership with Plume, Midco has introduced a market-leading solution that, through the trifecta of cloud, AI, and open-source, will keep pace with the ever-changing needs of the modern consumer.”

By 2025, Midco expects to deploy 10G broadband while expanding its fiber network to rural areas. The company also delivers TV services including the Midco Sports regional sports network, phone, data center and advertising services, plus wholesale networking solutions. ■

Pat McAdaragh, president of Midco, has been elected chairman of the board of NCTA-The Internet & Television Association. He succeeds the outgoing chairman, Comcast Cable president Dave Watson, who, not surprisingly, becomes immediate past chair.

That June 22 election also saw the following officers installed: Charter chairman Tom Rutledge, vice chairman; Cox Communications president Mark Greatrex, treasurer; and Paramount Global president and CEO Bob Bakish, secretary.

Other board members elected were Ron Duncan, CEO, General Communication, to a three-year term as at-large system director; Dick Sjoberg, president, Sjoberg’s, Inc.; to a two-year term as rural/midsize director.

At-large programmer directors elected were Paramount Global's Bakish; David Nevins, chief content officer, scripted originals, Paramount Plus, and chairman and CEO, Showtime Networks; and Paul Buccieri, president, A+E Networks Group, all for for two-year terms.

Alfred Liggins, CEO, Urban One, was elected to a one-year term to fill the seat vacated by David Zaslav, who became president of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Elected associate director was Frank Drendel, chairman, CommScope, for a two-year term.

Joining the NCTA board was Kathleen Finch, chairman and chief content officer of Warner Bros. Discovery's U.S. Networks Group, as corporate programmer director, succeeding former WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar, who exited after the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger.

NEW ORLEANS - Centennial, Colorado-based cable video tech provider Evolution Digital used the Cable-Tec Expo event today to announce its latest customer win, the deployment of its eStream 4K set-top in Midcontinent Communications’ new IPTV service, which is slated to debut early next year.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Midco will deploy the Android TV-powered eStream 4K devices, along with a TiVo user interface, giving users of the managed network service access to OTT apps in the Google Play Store. The cable operator will also use Evolution Digital’s Device Manager (eDM), a software platform that provides management, control, monitoring and analytics of devices, as well as the ability to deploy software, firmware and security updates to customer devices.

In July, it was reported that Buckeye Broadband and MaxxSouth, two cable operators owned by Toledo, Ohio-based Block Communications, have deployed app-based video services powered by Evolution Digital’s full IP-based platform.

This followed a similar deployment by Missouri’s Vast Broadband, which Evolution announced in June.

“As Android TV is becoming pay-TV providers’ chosen ecosystem, Evolution Digital provides the necessary ongoing elements that come with building, certifying and maintaining Android TV in-production, while helping operators, like Midco, build a strong foundation for current and future innovation to outcompete in the market for many years to come,” said Marc Cohen, executive VP of sales and marketing for Evolution Digital, in a statement.

Added Bill Chatwell, Midco’s director of video systems: “As we begin to make a major migration to cloud-based video, we trust Evolution Digital’s expertise to help lead us in to the future of streaming, providing our customers an unparalleled TV service at scale.”

Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Midco has become the latest tier 2 cable operator to sign onto TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform, with an eye toward delivering IPTV to Android TV set-tops and mobile devices.

Midco delivers TV, internet and phone service to 385,000 homes and businesses in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas and Wisconsin with cable TV, high-speed internet and landline voice services. It had previously deployed the TiVo Experience 4 user interface to its video customers, but is now looking to build out the capacity to integrate OTT experiences along with its managed linear service.

TiVo’s Next-Gen platform is a cloud-based technology that delivers both IP-based VOD and linear video, as well as a full range of cloud DVR features, to a wide range of set-top platforms, as well as iOS and Android mobile devices.

Like other tier 2 operators who’ve signed on to Next-Gen platform—a group that includes RCN, Armstrong and TDS Telecom—Midco will eventually roll out thin-client set-tops powered by Android TV.

Notably, TDS announced earlier this week that forged a deal with Arris to provide Android TV-powered devices.

Related: TDS Becomes First North American Operator to Deploy Arris’ Android TV Set-Top

“With TiVo’s Next-Gen Platform, we are able to easily and rapidly deploy superior entertainment experiences that meet the evolving needs of our customers,” said Jon Pederson, chief technology officer, Midco. “Our business is built on innovation, and TiVo’s industry-leading solutions enable us to deliver a simple, smart, and elegant customer experience, while leapfrogging our competitors.”

Added Jeffrey Glahn, VP of North American sales for TiVo: “TiVo’s advanced platform gives operators a flexible migration path to IPTV, allowing them to continuously innovate and easily introduce must-have features to its customers.”

TiVo announces its second quarter earnings results later this afternoon. 

Mediacom wants to join America’s other large cable companies in testing possible commercial CBRS applications.

The New York-based cable operator has filed the requisite paperwork with the FCC, indicating plans to begin tests involving Samsung radio gear in the 3650-3700GHz frequency range.

Mediacom isn’t commending right now. Light Reading discovered the filing.

Related: CBRS-Focused Alliances Forge, er, Alliance on Key Tech Issues

Mediacom joins Comcast, Charter, Cox and Midco in looking for possible uses for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service, the 3500-3700GHz frequency band set aside by the government for a narrow lists of uses, primarily military.

The U.S. government has almost finished a lengthy test of commercial use of CBRS, and the first commercial deployments are expected to begin soon.

Related: Arris IDs CBRS as an Opportunity Right Now

So far among the cable companies, Midco is the only operator to be explicit in terms of its goals for the spectrum. Midco has tested applications in the 3.5GHz range and plans to use CBRS for fixed wireless services that will expand on its existing wireline network to access hard-to-reach rural areas.

As for the other U.S. operators, they’re still being vague regarding their CBRS plans.

“There are multiple spectrum opportunities, some of which are free and some of which are licensed,” noted Tom Rutledge, chairman and CEO of Charter, during last week’s first quarter earnings call. “CBRS is what we’re experimenting in and that will be available to us at no cost, at least part of it will be. And we also continue to develop WiFi and WiFi capabilities.”

Midcontinent Communications (Midco) wants to use fixed wireless to deliver broadband to remote portions of its rural footprint. And it’s currently testing residential fixed wireless speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstreaming using its 3.65 GHZ nationwide nonexclusive and 3.5 GHz CBRS band spectrum licenses.

“Midco’s fixed wireless innovation extends to the millimeter wave, where we are beginning testing,” said Justin Forde, Midco’s senior director of government relations, testifying Friday during a hearing on 5G conducted by Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation chair John Thune (R-S.D.). A transcripts of Forde’s testimony is available here.

Midco is among a number of telecom companies, Comcast and Charter included, looking at delivering services through high-band frequencies committed to the Citizens Band Radio Service. 

“Using shorter distances from towers to consumers, we can use the 70 and 80 GHz bands for our point-to-point connections and the 50 and 60 GHz bands for our point-to-multipoint connections,” Forde added. “A new meshing technology will increase redundancy and reliability, and we will be testing Gigabit fixed wireless services. Millimeter wave technology can be an additional tool in the toolbox to offer high-speed and reliable broadband to rural America.”

Related: CBRS Alliance Declares Interop a Success, Says Commercial Deployments are ‘Imminent’

Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Midco serves more than 400,000 residential and business customers count on Midco services in 342 communities in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, and Wisconsin.

Forde rendered his testimony as the FCC, which was also present at Friday’s hearings, looks to change the way it allocates spectrum for so-called “5G” services, the name which larger wireless carriers are using to market their new fixed wireless offerings.

“It would be detrimental to rural America if valuable and limited spectrum was allocated only to 5G, especially as 5G requires a high concentration of small cells to operate,” Forde said. “Using current mobile 5G technology, it would take an estimated 350 small cell towers to provide 5G to Sioux Falls, with a square footage of only 74 miles. While technology that requires end users to be in such close proximity to a tower is a possibility in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and other urban areas, mobile 5G it is not currently a realistic solution to close the Digital Divide in rural areas.

“On behalf of our friends and neighbors who still lack access to broadband, we ask that Congress and the FCC allow fixed wireless providers like Midco to have equal access to spectrum as that valuable resource is freed up for commercial use,” Forde added. "We know from field testing that the 3.5 GHz band is key spectrum for us to provide speeds of 100/20 and higher to homes that are over 8 miles away from the tower.

The FCC is currently changing the rules for the 3.5 GHz band. Under those rules, Forde said, “After 2020, we will lose our interference protection in the 3.65 GHz band, and we will then need to either use general authorized access spectrum, in which case our operations would not be entitled to interference protection, or bid on priority access licenses in the 3550-3650 MHz range that will be auctioned. Moreover, only 70 MHz of spectrum will be auctioned, and there is no guarantee Midco will be able to gain access to that spectrum.”

Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson has been named chairman of the C-SPAN board's executive committee.

That came at C-SPAN's board meeting in New York.

Watson joined the board earlier this year, succeeding Comcast CEO Neil Smit after he stepped down.

Also joining the board of the public service networks funded by the cable industry were Dexter Goei, president of Altice N.V and chair/CEO of Altice USA, and Wide Open West CEO Steven Cochran.

Elected to additional two-year terms were board members Pat McAdaragh, president of Midco; and Alan Block, chair of Block Communications.

The executive committee can be empowered to set strategy and over see finances on behalf of the 15-member board.

Midco, a cable operator that serves more than 385,000 residential and business subs in parts of Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, is upgrading its VOD platform with Adrenalin, SeaChange International’s multiscreen backoffice platform.

Midco has been delivering VOD services on SeaChange’s legacy backoffice product, Axiom. The MSO plans to shift to Adrenalin by the first half of 2017, as it looks to centralize its on-demand operations for set-top boxes, and pave the way to deliver VOD to smartphones, tablets and other IP-based devices.

SeaChange said Midco is also set to deploy the vendor’s AssetFlow content management software, which automates the ingest, tracking and metadata handling for on-demand content, including movies and TV shows.

“We’re pleased to continue our longstanding collaboration with SeaChange to continue Midco’s popular ON Demand services and have the ability to expand our foundation for advanced capabilities in the future,” Bill Chatwell, Midco’s video systems manager, said in a statement.

In December, SeaChange said more than 20 customers had been “quoted for upgrades” to Adrenalin.

Marking its entry into the Kansas market, Midco said it has inked a deal to acquire WideOpenWest’s system in Lawrence, Kan., that serves more than 30,000 customers and spans the counties of Douglas, Leavenworth and Wyandotte.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but WOW’s Lawrence system passes about 67,000 homes and businesses, and Midco will also acquire WOW! Channel 6, Lawrence’s local TV broadcaster, they said.

For Midco, the deal will enable it to expand beyond the 350,000 customers it serves in parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Midco noted that about 70 WOW employees who will be joining its company, which employs roughly 1,500 people.

RELATED: Midcontinent Rebrands as ‘Midco’

The Lawrence system has changed hands multiple times in recent years. Knology nabbed it in 2010 when it acquired what was then known as Sunflower Broadband for $165 million.  WOW acquired Knology, including the former Sunflower Broadband system, in 2012 for $1.5 billion

"We could sense the pride in the local community the first time our team set foot in Lawrence. We experience the same positive environment in the towns we serve further north, so this acquisition just feels like the right fit culturally," Pat McAdaragh, president & CEO of Midco, said in a statement.

"At WOW!, we're familiar with the quality operation Midco runs. I'm confident that the people, businesses and institutions in the Lawrence area will be pleased with Midco's customer care philosophy, its integrity and its commitment to innovation," added WOW CEO Steven Cochran.

RELATED: Midco Sets DOCSIS 3.1 Field Trials

They said the deal is expected to close “within the next few months.”

Midco's financial advisor for the acquisition is Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, and its legal advisor is Stinson Leonard Street, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP and SunTrust 

Signaling its launch of commercial data center and managed IT services, Midco said it has struck a deal to acquire Dataware LLC.

Financial terms were not announced, but the deal includes two data centers located in Sioux Falls and Yankton, S.D., Midco said, noting that it gives the operator the infrastructure required to deliver business-class data center and managed services across the Upper Midwest.

Midco said it will continue to serve Dataware customers as it expands its service line to include additional managed business IT services. Midco noted that it’s assessing opportunities to expand the data center strategy into other cities.

“The combination of the data center environments on top of our Northern Plains Network is an advantage for Midco Business, but even more so for our customers,” Scott Smidt, who leads the data center strategy and team at Midco and serves as its VP of business engineering and operations, said in a statement. “Businesses already benefit from the reliability, redundancy and capacity of our wholly owned and operated fiber-optic network. Soon, they can use that network to access their secure data housed in a Midco facility,” adds Smidt.

“As we look to the future, we may examine opportunities in additional Midco markets presently underserved by large data centers, such as Fargo and Grand Forks, and then move our focus to other key Midco markets,” Steve Grosser, EVP for Midco, added.

Midco Business, the commercial services arm of the operator, delivers service via an 8,400-mile fiber-optic network that connects to more than 40 regional and national fiber networks. Midco said its network is certified for MEF 2.0 and is scalable to 8 terabits per second.

Midco has pushed ahead with the launch of a whole-home WiFi service, powered by gear and software from AirTies, that costs $7.95 per month for up to four wireless access points.

The offering, hinted at last November, uses an intelligent mesh system from AirTies that’s designed to boost in-home WiFi coverage. The system uses wireless access points from AirTies that work together to create a wireless mesh system that, the vendor claims, provides better performance that the use of wireless extenders.  

For subs who take the offer, Midco said a tech will visit to do an assessment and determine how many wireless access points are needed to extend the signal strength, handles the install, and then provides an updated “heat map” showing the results.

Midco joins a growing group of operators that offer premium, whole-home WiFi products aimed at eliminating wireless dead zones. Bright House Networks, for example, launched its Echo Home Networking service in July 2014. Pricing for that product varies based on the customer’s Internet package, but most pay less than $10 per month for it, the company ntoed.

Midco, which is offering the new premium product in Sioux Falls, S.D., is the first-announced U.S. service provider customer for AirTies, which has said it has trials underway with other, still-unnamed mid-sized and large service providers here. Outside the U.S., its customersinclude Sky, Vodafone, Singtel, and Swisscom, among others. 

“With more connected devices than ever and bandwidth consumption doubling every 18 months, home wireless networks can become overburdened,” Jon Pederson, CTO of Midco, said in a statement. “At the same time, factors such as home layout, other wireless devices, and devices using older technology can interfere with Wi-Fi signals. “Our Whole Home Wi-Fi solution helps customers’ wireless networks provide a consistently strong signal to every corner of the house, even to decks and patios.”

Following recent DOCSIS 3.1 lab trials, Midco is moving ahead with plans to roll with a field trial of the emerging multi-gigabit platform next month in Fargo, N.D., and follow by a pilot in Sioux Falls, S.D., before the end of 2016.

As previously announced, Midco will be using Cisco’s cBR-8 converged cable access platform to power the network-facing side of DOCSIS 3.1. Midco hasn’t revealed which modems it will use, but CableLabs recently certified products from five suppliers, including Technicolor, which recently acquired Cisco’s CPE business.

Midco (formerly known as Midcontinent Communications) has committed to delivering gigabit to its entire service area by the end of 2017. The MSO serves more than 330,000 customers in nearly 350 communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

“Speed matters to our customers, and we have made it a priority to reshape our network to deliver the fastest, most reliable Internet service possible,” Jon Pederson, Midco’s CTO, said in a statement. “Cisco shares our vision for a fully scalable, efficient network that will take us into the future and manage the bandwidth demands of our increasingly connected lives.”

“Midco has been full speed ahead with its plans to deliver a DOCSIS 3.1-ready network,” added Kelly Ahuja, senior vice president, Service Provider business, products and solutions, at Cisco. “Through our collaboration, Midco customers will be among the first in the country to enjoy the fastest Internet connection available, unleashing a host of new experiences that can help make their lives better.”

Among other U.S. cable MSOs, Comcast announced plans to deploy DOCSIS 3.1 to a handful of markets this year. 

Midcontinent Communications’s long-time nickname is now the MSO's official name. 

The operator's rebrand as “Midco” went official on Tuesday (January 12), as the operator now aims to rev up upgrades that will soon deliver 1-Gig residential broadband service across its footprint.

Midco, which serves more than 330,000 homes and businesses in parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, also introduced a new logo and is now starting to implement the new branding to marketing materials and other consumer-facing parts of its business.

“We have a lot of ground to cover. Everything from the signs on our buildings to graphics on service vehicles, letterhead, envelopes, and even the apparel our technicians wear will need to be updated,” Trish McCann, Midco’s chief marketing officer said, in a statement, noting that it will be at least a year before the MSO completes the conversion.

“Midco has a long history of blazing new trails and launching the latest technology to deliver communications and entertainment to homes and businesses across the region,” added president and CEO Pat McAdaragh. “Most of our customers already call us Midco. We believe our shortened name, logo and marketing honor our past, and more importantly, point to where we’re going in the future.”

Midco said it’s now pushing ahead on a plan to offer 1-Gig residential broadband in all service areas by the end of 2017.

Last fall, Midco announced that its Fargo-Morehead West area in North Dakota will be the first market to get 1-Gig.

Midconoted in July that it would shift to DOCSIS 3.1, an emerging multi-gigabit platform for HFC networks, using the cBR-8, a new Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) from Cisco Systems that combines the functions of the cable modem termination system and edge QAM. Products from five cable modem have already been certified for DOCSIS 3.1 by CableLabs.

Midcontinent Communications is tossing its hat into the 1-Gig ring.

The MSO on Monday introduced the “Gigabit Frontier Initiative,” a plan that aims to bring gigabit speeds to about 600,000 homes and 55,000 businesses across its footprint South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota, fed by a fiber network that extends more than 7,600 miles, over the next three years. 

MidCo said communities will launch 1-Gig as they are upgraded. The MSO has set up a Web site where customers can check to view availability in their areas. With work slated to get underway in 2015, MidCo said the first areas expected to get gigabit service are Fargo, Bismarck and Grand Forks, N.D.; as well as Sioux Falls and Rapid City, S.D. 

MidCo’s current high-end residential broadband tier, MidcoNet Xtstream Wideband 3.0, tops out at 200 Mbps downstream by 20 Mbps upstream for about $106 per month. The operator said it will announce pricing for gigabit services when they become available.

The operator noted that bandwidth usage among its high-speed Internet subs increased 77% in the last year, and has seen consumption double every 15 months.

“It’s interesting to sit here and say, ‘Wow, I’ve got enough to get by right now.' But in five years you’re going to change your mind,” MidCo VP of technology Jon Pederson said in this video about the initiative. 

“As the gold standard, gigabit Internet delivers a speed that the vast majority of Americans can only dream of accessing,” said Pat McAdaragh, president and CEO of Midcontinent Communications, in a statement. “Midcontinent will make world-class, gigabit Internet access available to most of our customers by the end of 2017, and we’re not limiting it to a few neighborhoods in the largest cities.”

In was not immediately clear if the tech plan calls for MidCo to deliver gigabit speeds with all-fiber networks or if it also intends to use DOCSIS 3.1 technology when it becomes available.

MidCo, whose project is getting underway as President Obama asks the FCC to reclassify broadband as a Title II service, joins a growing group of cable operators that have also introduced gigabit initiatives. For example, Cox Communications has plans in motion to begin market-wide deployment of gigabit speeds by the end of 2016, starting in Phoenix, where it’s marketing the service under the “G!GABLAST” brand. Suddenlink Communications’ “Operation Gigaspeed” project is targeting top speeds of 1-Gig in 90% of its footprint by 2017.