A New York federal judge has ordered Charter Communications to pay nearly $19.2 million in damages to Windstream, ruling that the No. 2 U.S. cable operator tried to trick Windstream’s customers into switching over when the company was restructuring in bankruptcy court in 2019. 

“Don’t risk losing your internet and TV services,” Charter warned Windstream customers in a letter sent to them in 2019. “Windstream has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which means uncertainty. Will they be able to provide the Internet and TV services you rely on in the future?”

Here's the ad:

Charter even sent the letters in envelopes featuring Windstream’s logo and corporate colors. 

Key fact: Littlerock, Arkansas-based Windstream was restructuring, but it wasn’t going out of business. Windstream announced in September that it had successfully emerged from bankruptcy protection, shedding more than $4 billion in debt. It exited 2020 with 60 new customers and a war chest of around $2 billion to spend on network upgrades for its Kinetic broadband and TV clients. The company's enterprise division remains the biggest supplier of SD-WAN service in the U.S. You can read a full FAQ of the company's improved economic health here. 

In May 2019 Judge Robert Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York ordered Charter to send another round of letters, clarifying that its earlier claims had been “untrue and improper.”

And last week, Judge Drain ordered Charter to pay $19.179 million to Windstream “for their literally false and intentionally misleading advertising campaign that wrongfully interfered with the Debtors’ customer contracts and goodwill.” 

“We are gratified that Judge Drain’s ruling means Charter will have to pay a significant price for its egregious false advertising,” said Kristi Moody, executive VP and general counsel for Windstream, in a statement. “Charter knew full well what it was doing when it embarked on a dishonest scare-tactic campaign to lure away our customers. At Windstream, we will always aggressively defend ourselves and our customers against predatory schemes and meritless allegations.”

Charter reps didn't immediately respond to Next TV's inquiry for comment. 

Interestingly, Ars Technica unearthed a Reuters story from 2009, detailing how a pre-AT&T DirecTV tried to do pretty much the same thing to Charter when it was under bankruptcy protection a little more than a decade back. Charter successfully sued DirecTV over those ads in 2009.

Broadband services provider Windstream has asked the FCC to approve the transfer of its licenses licenses to a restructured company so it can get out of bankruptcy. The approval will require a limited FCC rule waiver for the two-step restructuring Windstream has set up. 

Related: Windstream Gets Access to $400 Billion in Financing 

The FCC has put that restructuring plan out for comment on whether it should grant the waiver and transfers, with comments due July 9 and replies July 16. 

Among Windstream's various businesses is providing 100 Gpbs transport services for cable network and content providers. 

The company filed for bankruptcy last February. It has set up the restructuring in two phases. The first phase is so the FCC can sign off on the licenses and it can get out of bankruptcy. Phase one will keep foreign ownership of the company below 25% and no individual foreign investor will have more than a 10% interest. In step two, the FCC would need to approve a higher level of foreign ownership. 

Windstream said the public interest would be served by FCC approval, in part because it would become a stronger broadband competitor for both residential and enterprise (business) broadband.  

Despite the bankruptcy, Windstream was one of the highest-profile bidders in last year's 24 Ghz 5G spectrum auction. 

YouTube has signed a distribution deal with Windstream to have the telecom market its virtual pay TV service, YouTube TV, to the telecom’s Kinetic Internet customers.

Little Rock, Ark.-based Windstream recently began notifying customers that it will stop offering traditional linear pay TV service. The move, the company said, will allow it to instead provide its subscribers “advanced streaming video offering.”

“Partnering with YouTube TV gives our customers a way to cut the cord without sacrificing live, local coverage and seamlessly access the latest on-demand content,” said Jeff Small, president of the company’s consumer and small and midsize business segment, in a statement. “Fortunately, for our customers, the reliable high-speed network delivered by Kinetic is the best place to enjoy streaming video.”

YouTube TV has attracted more than 2 million subscribers for its virtual MVPD (vMVPD), which offers a base package of 70 channels for $50 a month.

YouTube TV has carved out similar distribution deals with Cincinnati Bell and Hawaiian Telecom. YouTube TV is being billed as an option to another Kinetic-branded video service

A year ago, Windstream announced plans to launch an iteration of the MobiTV streaming platform under the Kinetic brand.

The new app-based MobiTV Connect-based technology was billed as a “direct replacement” for the legacy Kinetic TV product, which was based on Ericsson’s MediaRoom platform.

The new service initially launched in Windstream’s North Georgia footprint, followed by Lincoln, Neb. Kinetic TV was expected to be available across eight additional markets last year, the company said.

YouTube has signed a distribution deal with Windstream to have the telecom market its virtual pay TV service, YouTube TV, to the telecom’s Kinetic Internet customers. 

Little Rock, Ark.-based Windstream recently began notifying customers that it will stop offering traditional linear pay TV service. The move, the company said, will allow it to instead provide its subscribers “advanced streaming video offering.” 

“Partnering with YouTube TV gives our customers a way to cut the cord without sacrificing live, local coverage and seamlessly access the latest on-demand content,” said Jeff Small, president of the company’s consumer and small and midsize business segment, in a statement. “Fortunately, for our customers, the reliable high-speed network delivered by Kinetic is the best place to enjoy streaming video.”

YouTube TV has attracted more than 2 million subscribers for its virtual MVPD (vMVPD), which offers a base package of 70 channels for $50 a month. 

YouTube TV has carved out similar distribution deals with Cincinnati Bell and Hawaiian Telecom. YouTube TV is being billed as an option to another Kinetic-branded video service

A year ago, Windstream announced plans to launch an iteration of the MobiTV streaming platform under the Kinetic brand. 

The new app-based MobiTV Connect-based technology was billed as a “direct replacement” for the legacy Kinetic TV product, which was based on Ericsson’s MediaRoom platform.

The new service initially launched in Windstream’s North Georgia footprint, followed by Lincoln, Neb. Kinetic TV was expected to be available across eight additional markets last year, the company said.

Little Rock, Ark.-based telecom Windstream has partnered with OTT vendor MobiTV to launch a new technology backbone for its Kinetic TV service.

The new app-based MobiTV Connect-based platform will be a “direct replacement” for the legacy Kinetic TV underpinnings, Geoff Levy, senior VP of marketing for Windstream, told Telecompetitor.

Levy described MobiTV as a “much better platform” compared to the previous Ericsson solution, noting that it “allows for a cloud DVR.” UHD/4K and voice control will also be enabled.

Related: MobiTV Lines Up Programmers for New Video Streaming Platform

The service, Levy noted, “will have the same channel lineup and the prices will be the same.”

The MobiTV Connect service is IP-based and delivered over the operator client’s managed network. 

Users will be able to access the service via Android- and iOS-powered mobile devices, as well as Amazon Fire TV OTT hardware and Android TV-powered smart TVs. Users will also have the option of leasing for $6 a month a set-top from Windstream based on the Android TV operator tier platform.

The new service will launch in Windstream’s North Georgia footprint, followed by Lincoln, Nebraska. Kinetic TV is expected to be available across eight additional markets this year, the company said. Windstream offers Kinetic-branded internet services in 18 states.

Windstream said it will continue to support customers who want to keep using Mediaroom services delivered over IPTV or cable TV network infrastructure, but those offerings will no longer be available to new customers.

Windstream has announced the sale of Web 1.0-era consumer internet services business Earthlink to Dallas-based private equity firm Trive Capital for $330 million.

The deal comes less than two years after the Little Rock, Arkansas-based Windstream’s $1.1 billion all-stock purchase of Earthlink, the ISP founded back in 1994 as an alternative to America Online, Prodigy and CompuServe.

The legacy EarthLink consumer internet business offers internet access, online back-up, managed web design, web hosting and various email services to more than 600,000 customers throughout the U.S.

“This transaction enables us to divest a non-core segment and focus exclusively on our two largest business units. In addition, it improves our credit profile and metrics in 2019 and beyond,” said Tony Thomas, president and CEO of Windstream.

As RCR Wireless noted, when Windstream purchased Earthlink in February 1994, the telecom touted the combined network’s reach of 145,000 route-miles of fiber, Earthlink’s early launch of SD-WAN and expected annual cost synergies of $125 million.

Speaking to Bloomberg, however, Windstream spokesperson Chris King added, “People paid $5 to $10 a month for email. It was not a strategic asset for us.”

For Windstream, the divesture of Earthlink follows the $60.5 million sale of dark fiber assets in Minnesota and Nebraska to Minnesota-based telecom provider Arvig Enterprises last month.

“We are excited to partner with and support the EarthLink management team in continuing to provide great products and services available to millions of households in the United States,” said Trive Managing Partner, Conner Searcy. “We intend to provide additional resources and access to deep industry relationships to help grow the brand in the coming years.”

Windstream has finalized a new deal to offer DirecTV’s satellite TV service as well as DirecTV Now, the OTT-delivered pay TV offering to residential customers across its footprint.

Financial terms were not announced, but Windstream said it intends to bundle DirecTV products with its Kinetic-branded high-speed internet services.

The new agreement arrives a few months after Windstream started to bundle DirecTV Now with its internet services. AT&T ended 2017 with 1.15 million DirecTV Now subscribers, adding 368,000 in Q4.

RELATED: Windstream Bundles Broadband With DirecTV Now 

Prior to this new deal, Windstream had also been reselling and bundling satellite TV services from Dish Network.

A Windstream official confirmed that the new DirecTV agreement has no effect on the ongoing sale, support and avaialbity of Kinetic TV, the company’s in-house, managed IPTV offering that uses Mediaroom, the platform that Ericsson acquired from Microsoft in 2013.

RELATED: Cisco Attacks Ericsson’s Mediaroom Market (subscription required)

Windstream’s Mediaroom-based Kinetic TV service is offered today in parts of North Carolina; Lincoln, Neb.; Lexington, Ky., and Sugar Land, Texas.

At the end of Q3, Windstream‘s ILEC consumer segment had 289,600 digital TV subs, down 12.1% from the year-ago period.

“DIRECTV offers a diversity of product choices that will be a great fit for our customers who want premium entertainment at great prices,” Jeff Small, president of Windstream's consumer and small business segment, said in a statement. “Our Kinetic by Windstream customers can now enjoy quality programming coupled with cutting-edge technology. This fits perfectly with our digital entertainment strategy.”

Adding an OTT TV component to its repertoire, Windstream has recently begun to bundle DirecTV Now with its “Kinetic”-branded internet services.

Windstream added that option during Q3, company CEO Tony Thomas noted on the company’s earnings call last week.

Windstream’s new DirecTV Now bundling option is highlighted on this web page. After customers pick a  Kinetic internet plan, Windstream then directs them to DirecTV Now to complete the process.

The relationship, reported on this week by FierceCable, gives Windstream another video option for broadband customers and a pay TV option it can deliver in all of its markets.

The DirecTV Now deal also complements Windstream’s own managed IPTV service, Kinetic TV, which runs on Ericsson’s Mediaroom platform and is available in parts of North Carolina; Lincoln, Neb.; Lexington, Ky., and Sugar Land, Texas. Windstream also resells and bundles satellite TV services from Dish Network.

RELATED: Windstream’s Kinetic TV Blows into North Carolina

Thomas said the DirecTV Now agreement helps Windstream bring a cost-effective entertainment option to all its markets.

“When you think about DirecTV now and how it helps Windstream…it’s really in our ability to be an entertainment provider,” Thomas said. “This enables us to be an entertainment provider across our entire footprint. And it helps us, as you alluded to, on both retention of existing customers as well as in terms of acquiring new customers.”

Windstream’s partnership approach with DirecTV Now differs from the OTT strategy undertaken by CenturyLink, which introduced its own internet-powered pay TV product, CenturyLink Stream, in June.

Small-and mid-sized U.S. cable operators are also poised to follow a similar path to Windstream by bundling a third-party OTT TV offering with their own broadband services. The National Cable Television Cooperative, an organization that represents many of the nation’s tier 2/3 providers, has agreements in place with Sony’s PlayStation Vue and fuboTV.

Synacor has expanded its relationship with Windstream in the form of a multi-year agreement to provide hosted email for the service provider.

Financial terms were not announced, but the hosted agreement also includes email monetization via way of advertising. The agreement also broadens Synacor’s deal with Windstream, which has already been a portal customer of Synacor’s.

The Windstream deal also expands Synacor’s email and messaging business. Synacor acquired Zimbra, a provider of open source-based email, messaging and collaboration software, in 2015.

RELATED: Synacor Snares Zimbra

Notably, Windstream is outsourcing its email needs to Synacor as another major ISP, Verizon, shifts gears. As reported last week, Verizon is closing down its email business, but, as part of the transition, will provide its broadband customers with an option to retain their Verizon.net email addresses via AOL, which Verizon acquired in mid-2015, or shift to a different provider such as Google, Yahoo or Live Mail. Verizon, which acknowledged that there are “more capable email platforms out there,” is also in the process of acquiring certain Yahoo Internet assets, so it will soon have two major email platforms at its disposal.

RELATED: Verizon Dropping Its Email Business

Himesh Bhise, Synacor’s CEO, said there are still major synergies between email and portal products, as together they drive engagement, traffic and monetization.

“Rumors of the demise of email are greatly exaggerated,” he said, noting that it’s still a key tool for marketing, advertising, and customer retention. “Fundamentally, it’s going to continue to be an important platform.”

Bhise said Synacor won about 300 new small and medium business contracts for the licensing of Zimbra’s email software. Bhise also estimates that Synacor has about 500 million mailboxes on Zimbra’s platform worldwide.

As for future email-facing growth, he sees it coming from both consumer ISP and enterprise segments through direct sales and via Synacor’s reseller channels.

In a recent whitepaper focused on the email business, Synacor holds that ISPs should view inactive email accounts “as the lowest hanging of all potential fruit -- they have already walked through your door, you just have to turn on the lights and give them more of a reason to stick around.”

Synacor also believes that it’s not too late to drive consumer usage of ISP email, despite the popularity of “free” email services from sources such as Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail.

The Feds have given a clean antitrust review bill of health to the proposed $1.1 billion merger of ISPs Windstream and Earthlink.

The deal was listed among those that had been granted early termination of their Hart Scott Rodino antitrust reviews. Those are conducted by either the Justice Department or Federal Trade Commission--they never say which reviewed a deal when granting early termination, but Justice usually handles telecom transactions.

Early termination means they are done with the review and are not suggesting that the merger be blocked or suing to insure that certain conditions are applied.

The FCC will also need to sign off, but that process will take a while longer. The FCC opened its review docket on the deal Dec. 2 and reply comments are not due until Dec. 23, so there will likely be no decision before early next year. The companies signaled they did not expect the deal to be able to close until first quarter 2017.

The companies announced Nov. 7 they had reached a deal for an all-stock deal for $1.1 billion, including debt.

The combined company will have 145,000 fiber route miles, including key Southeast and Northeast routes, and make it a stronger player in the enterprise (business data services) sector, they said.

They told the FCC that the deal would would lower overhead and lead to at least $50 million annually in "network access synergies" in a "relatively short" timeframe, the FCC said in establishing the comment cycle for the deal.

The FCC review goes beyond antitrust to look at public interest factors and boosting competition in the business data services (BDS) market has been one of the FCC's goals in a planned--though since tabled--revamp of BDS regs.

Windstream also said the meld would give it more flexibility in "strategic investments."

The new company will be called Windstream and be based in Little Rock, Ark.

Pushing ahead with plans announced in August, Windstream this week said it has launched Kinetic TV, its IP-based pay TV offering, to more than 50,000 homes across 13 communities in North Carolina.

RELATED: Windstream Merging with EarthLink

The service, which runs on Windstream’s fiber network in the area, is also powered by Ericsson Mediaroom, the platform it acquired from Microsoft in 2013.

Windstream’s rollout in North Carolina includes Albemarle, Badin, China Grove, Concord, Harrisburg, Hemby Bridge, Indian Trail, Kannapolis, Matthews, Mooresville, Mt. Pleasant, New London and Oakboro.

Windstream subs can bundle Kinetic TV with its phone and Internet service. Its “Kinetic Preferred Bundle” paired with a 1-Gbps service runs $99.99 per month for the first year.

Windstream has also launched Kinetic TV in Lincoln, Neb.; Lexington, Ky., and Sugar Land, Texas.

The company, which also resells and bundles pay TV services from Dish Network, lost about 36,000 digital video subs in Q3, ending the period with about 329,000.

Windstream Holdings said Monday it had pulled the trigger on a $1.1 billion all-stock deal, including debt, to merge with fellow ISP EarthLink, reasoning that the deal will give Windstream a national footprint spanning about 145,000 fiber route miles, including “strategic routes” in the Southeast and Northeast U.S

Under the deal, EarthLink shareholders will receive 0.818 shares of Windstream common stock for each EarthLink share owned, representing a 13% premium to the average exchange ratio of 0.721x over the month ended Nov. 3, 2016, the most recent unaffected trading day. Windstream expects to issue approximately 93 million shares of stock valued at approximately $673 million, based on the company’s closing stock price on Nov. 4, 2016. Windstream shareholders will own about 51% of the combined company, with EarthLink shareholders owning the rest.

They expect the deal to create annual operating and capital expenditure synergies of more than $125 million.

They expect the deal to close in the first half of 2017, with Tony Thomas to serve as president and chief executive officer of the combined company and Bob Gunderman serving as chief financial officer of the combined company.

The combined company will keep the Windstream name and remain headquartered in Little Rock, Ark.

EarthLink, a pioneering ISP going back to when dial-up was the primary connection point, had sought a wholesaling condition on the Comcast-NBCU merger. It was also a strong advocate for multi-ISP conditions  to be placed on the 2000 AOL-Time Warner merger.

EarthLink is the latest ISP of yore to get acquired. Verizon snapped up AOL last year. In 2001, SBC (now part of AT&T) acquired Prodigy.  AOL acquired CompuServe in 1997.

The bulk of EarthLink’s revenues now comes from the enterprise/mid-market and small business sectors. EarthLink posted Q3 revenues of 235.1 million, down 13.2% year-over-year.  About $47.8 million of the Q3 total came from consumer services.

EarthLink ended Q3 with about 427,000 “narrowband” subscribers, and 244,000 broadband subs. 

Windstream has emerged as an early adopter of G.fast, as it will use the emerging advanced DSL platform to bring faster speeds to multiple dwelling units in Lincoln, Neb., using gear from Calix.

Windstream, they said, will target multiple MDUs in the market with Calix’s AXOS G.fast nodes and GigaFamily products in Lincoln. Windstream plans to extend the deployment of G.fast to deliver speeds of up to 1 Gbps over copper there and other markets.

"In a growing community like Lincoln with a large number of college students and young professionals, MDUs are both an opportunity and a challenge for service providers looking to enable a robust subscriber experience," Art Nichols, Windstream’s vice president of network architecture and technology, said in a statement.

Though many telcos are deploying fiber-to-the-premises, G.fast represents an emerging standard that can help them extend the life of DSL networks and position them to deliver 1-Gig speeds in order to compete with cable’s widespread DOCSIS platforms.

Last year, U.K. telecom BT said it was delivering up to 330 Mbps in a G.fast trial.

The ITU awardedfinal approval to the G.fast standard in December 2014.

Windstream said it has moved ahead with the launch of its IP-delivered Kinetic TV service in Sugar Land, Texas, where it faces off with incumbent MSO Comcast.

Windstream, which offers the service there to more than 30,000 homes in there, announced plans to launch the service to the affluent Houston suburb back in February.

Windstream’s pay TV service runs on a fiber-based network using Arris-made wireless whole-home HD-DVRs powered by Ericsson Mediaroom, the IPTV middleware platform that  Ericsson acquired from Microsoft in 2013.

Windstream has also launched Kinetic TV in Lincoln, Neb.; and Lexington, Ky., where it competes with Time Warner Cable.

Windstream is bundling Kinetic TV with its high-speed and telephone services, or offering it as a standalone starting at $39.99 per month.

Among the service combos, “Bundle 1” ties different TV tiers with a 25 Mbps Internet service for prices starting at $59.98 (with a “Basic” TV) package, while the triple-play, also with a 25-Meg broadband offering, starts at $64.98 per month. Pricing on its “Select” and “Preferred” TV bundles require a 12-month agreement.

Windstream also offers a 1-Gig broadband service in Sugar Land.

Windstream has announced plans to  launch Kinetic TV, its new IP-based TV service, to more than 30,000 homes in Sugar Land, Texas, where it will tangle with incumbent cable operator Comcast.

Windstream plans to launch the service in the affluent Houston suburb  in the second quarter, following up on earlier Kinetic TV launches in two Time Warner Cable markets: Lincoln, Neb.; and Lexington, Ky.

Running on a fiber-based network, Kinetic TV is powered by Ericsson Mediaroom and an Arris-made wireless whole-home HD-DVR.

Windstream also bundles Dish Network service with its high-speed Internet offerings. 

TierPoint, a St. Louis-based national provider of cloud, cloud, colocation and managed services, has agreed to purchase Windstream’s data center business in an all cash transaction for $575 million. 

As part of the deal, Windstream will establish an ongoing strategic partnership with TierPoint, allowing both companies to sell their respective products and services to each other’s prospective customers through referrals.  This structure will allow Windstream to focus capital on its core telecom offerings while continuing to offer traditional data center services to enterprise customers across a broader data center footprint.

"Data center services will remain an integral component of our enterprise service offering." said Windstream CEO Tony Thomas in a statement. “We expect the divested data center business to continue its significant growth under the leadership of TierPoint, and we look forward to partnering closely with them to provide advanced data center services to our enterprise customers.”

The deal is expected to close in the next two-to-four months.

TierPoint is part of Cequel Data Centers, an arm of cable veteran Jerry Kent’s Cequel III. Kent has been chairman of TierPoint since 2014 and in July was named the company‘s CEO. Kent also serves as chairman and CEO of Suddenlink Communications, a St. Louis-based cable operator with about 1.2 million customers. In May, European telecom giant Altice agreed to purchase a 70% interest in Suddenlink for $9.1 billion. That deal is expected to close before the end of the year, upon which Kent has indicated he will exit the company. 

In a statement, Kent said the Windstream data centers are a good fit. “Windstream Hosted Solutions and its employees have earned a reputation for providing excellent customer service and innovative enterprise-class solutions,” Kent said in the statement. “We value these team members as a key asset in the acquisition and their expertise adds to our strength and focus on providing a superior level of customer care. We’re also very pleased to enter into a long-term strategic partnership with Windstream, allowing both companies to leverage the expertise and respective strengths of our organizations.”

Synacor said it has struck an expanded multiyear deal with Windstream that includes the development of a next-gen customer portal and a search and discovery metadata platform for the telco’s multiscreen TV service. 

Financial terms were not disclosed, but the coming Web portal, for Windstream’s residential high-speed Internet customers, will feature a new UI and a more intuitive search and discovery platform, they said. 

“Windstream is in the business of connecting communities, and today’s digital experiences facilitate building both personal and business relationships,” Sarah Day, interim-president of consumer and small business for Windstream, which recently raised its video game by launching an IPTV service in Lincoln, Neb., that tangles with incumbent cable operator Time Warner Cable. “We’re excited to offer our customers a richer online experience powered by Synacor’s innovative solutions, accessing their latest portal technology, and enabling our customers to search, discover and view their favorite content from any device of their choosing.”

“Windstream’s expansion of our longstanding relationship is an endorsement of our newest products and the compelling experiences we help deliver to Windstream subscribers,” added Synacor CEO Himesh Bhise. 

Synacor also announced that Horry Telephone Cooperative (HTC) has picked the vendor email provider, and the launch of a native mobile iOS app for short-form video, news and links to operator customer-care features. The new app is a companion to the company’s white-label portal platform. 

The company also announced the addition of two execs -- Mike Primiani, as head of portal products, and Hardys Eggum, who will head up Synacor’s IT and technical operations.  Primiani most recently served as SVP of consumer products at Mindspark Interactive Network, a subsidiary of IAC, leading up tis advertising, gaming and shopping businesses.  Hardys was VP of media technology architecture at HBO, and is also late of Motorola.

Synacor made the string of announcements in concert with its latest financial results. The company, which specializes in customized Web portals and TV Everywhere authentication systems, posted Q2 revenues of $24.7 million, up 2% from the year-ago quarter. Search and ad revenue rose 3% to $19 million, ad revenue jumped 57% to $11.7 million, while subscriber based revenue was flat, at $5.7 million. 

Synacor also posted a net loss of $1.1 million (4 cents per share0, narrowed from a loss of $1.9 million (7 cents per share) in the year-ago quarter. It ended the quarter with $27.1 million in cash and cash equivalents, up from $26.8 million. 

It’s expecting Q3 revenues of $23.0 million to $24.0 million, and full-year 2015 revenues of $97.0 million to $102.0 million.

Windstream picked tax day to launched an IP-based pay TV service over its fiber network in Lincoln, Neb., where it faces off with incumbent MSO Time Warner Cable.

Windstream is initially offering the TV service, called Kinetic, to about 50,000 homes. It’s powered by Ericsson Mediaroom platform, features VOD, and is being offered on souped up Arris-made whole-home, wireless HD-DVRs. Watch this video to see more on Kinetic.

Windstream said it is not charging extra fees for professional installations, HD service, or its whole-home DVR.

Windstream has lined up a batch of no-contract bundles:

Bundle 1 -- TV + Internet

Basic: $59.98/month

Select: $104.98/month

Preferred: $124.98 per month

Bundle 2 – TV, Internet and Phone

Basic: $64.98/month

Select: $109.98/month

Preferred: $129.98/month

Rates for a TV-only service are “available upon request,” said Windstream, which will roll Kinetic to other markets later this year.  Windstream provides residential service in parts of 18 states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas.

It also offers a video service bundle through a partnership with Dish Network, and confirmed last fall, when it announced plans for Kinetic, that it will continue to support the Dish service option in all markets.

For Ericsson, Windstream is a win that comes after it rolled out multiscreen upgrades for Mediaroom in the wake of its acquisition of the IP video platform from Microsoft in 2013.

“We’re extremely excited to launch Kinetic in Lincoln,” said David Redmond, president of small business and consumer at Windstream, said in a statement. “Over the last year, we have heard loudly and clearly that this community is excited and eager for an alternative TV service. Windstream is confident that residents that sign up for Kinetic will find a highly interactive experience and a smarter way to watch TV than cable or satellite.”

Windstream Holdings announced some changes to its planned real estate investment truct, telling shareholders Thursday that it plans to retain a 19.9% interest in the new entity, and distribute the remaining 80.1% to shareholders.

The company had previously planned to distribute the entire REIT to shareholders when it first announced plans in July. Windstream plans to place fiber and copper plant and fixed real estate assets in the REIT, which should give its substantial tax savings.

In a statement, Windstream said the retained shares would be sold opportunistically during the 12-months after the spin-off to help retire debt.

“Given the importance of the REIT formation to Windstream’s future performance, the Board of Directors and I are intently focused on completing the spinoff, and it remains a strategic priority,” Windstream CEO Tony Thomas said in a statement. “This refined structure allows Windstream to reach our leverage goals faster to strengthen our competitive position, which we believe is appropriate and prudent given the fast changing telecom industry and rapidly evolving customer needs. By improving Windstream’s credit profile, the REIT benefits from having a financially stronger anchor tenant and retains the financial flexibility to grow and return capital to its shareholders.”

Windstream will hold a special meeting of stockholders on Feb. 20, in conjunction with the REIT spinoff to approve a 1-for-6 reverse stock split and an amendment to the certificate of incorporation of Windstream Corp., a subsidiary of Windstream Holdings that will facilitate the conversion of Windstream Corp. into a limited liability company. Without the LLC conversion, Windstream said it would be on the hook for a tax liability of $600 million to $800 million, based on current estimates, at Windstream Holdings that would be triggered upon execution of the spinoff.

In a blog posting Elevation LLC media analyst Steve Sweeney said while retaining the stock is positive in that it will help Windstream pay down about $4 billion in debt, it will also create a slight overhang on the REIT stock, “since there will be shares to be sold down by the parent in the first year.”

Windstream unveiled plans to launch “Kinetic,” a next-gen TV service that will be powered by Ericsson’s Mediaroom platform and will initially be offered to more than 50,000 homes in Lincoln, Neb., in the first half of 2015.  

Windstream, which already offers a video service bundle through a partnership with Dish Network, will first bring Kinetic to a market served by incumbent cable operator Time Warner Cable, which is in the process of being acquired by Comcast.

Windstream said it plans to roll out Kinetic to other Windstream communities “in the latter part of 2015 and beyond,” noting that it will bundle video service with its high-speed Internet and phone services.

Windstream plans to continue its bundling partnership with Dish in all of its markets. “Within the Kinetic coverage area in Lincoln, customers will have a choice of both television service offerings from Windstream,” a Windstream official said via email.

Windstream hasn’t announced pricing for the coming Kinetic video service, but the company said it will feature wireless set-top boxes, a whole-home DVR (to be offered for no extra cost), multiscreen viewing (TVs, tablets, and  smartphones), video-on-demand, and a “MultiView” mosaic feature that will let viewers watch up to six channels on the TV at the same time.

“Our customers value advanced entertainment options and depend on us to develop next-generation technology that delivers an enhanced experience," said David Redmond, president of consumer services at Windstream, in a statement. “We’re extremely excited to roll out Kinetic in 2015 and beyond because we believe Kinetic represents more than just a great entertainment experience; it represents a stronger connection between Windstream and the communities we serve.”

The new service marks a nice win for Ericsson, which recently announced (subscription required) multiscreen capabilities and other upgrades to its Mediaroom platform (the image above is a sample of the new version of Mediaroom), which Ericsson acquired from Microsoft last year, as well as MediaFirst, a new cloud-based, “software-defined” product for traditional pay-TV providers and new over-the-top players.  

“We’re putting the gas back down on the Mediaroom platform,” Ben Huang, head of global marketing for Ericsson’s Mediaroom Business Group, said in a recent interview with Multichannel News.

When Ericsson closed its acquisition of the Mediaroom assets from Microsoft about a year ago, its video platforms were supporting about 13 million homes and 24 million set-tops. That has since grown to more than 17.5 million homes and 33 million set-tops, thanks to 76 commercial deployments across 30 countries, according to Huang.

One casualty in Ericsson’s process to shore up Mediaroom was Swisscom, which is moving away from Mediaroom in favor of a “TV 2.0” multiscreen product that will be based on the Android platform.

AT&T and Verizon Communications both made significant jumps in Netflix’s ISP Speed Index for August, delivering higher-quality Netflix streams following recent paid interconnection deals between the ISPs and the OTT video giant.

Those gains helped to push the U.S. average speed, as ranked by Netflix, to 2.57 Mbps in August, versus 2.23 Mbps in July, putting the U.S. in 11th place among countries tracked by the streaming service. The Netherlands (3.63 Mbps average) remained the top country, according to Netflix, which has been urging the FCC to include paid peering deals in its vetting of new network neutrality rules and has thrown its weight behind the symbolic Internet Slowdown Day protest slated for September 10.

Among the 16 major U.S. ISPs ranked by Netflix, AT&T U-verse leaped seven spots, to No. 7 on the list, delivering an average Netflix streaming speed during primetime hours of 2.61 Mbps, up from 1.44 Mbps in July. AT&T DSL, meanwhile, hopped two spots, to No. 13, with an average of 1.81 Mbps, up from 1.11 Mbps in July.

Verizon FiOS’s average of 2.41 Mbps for August enabled it to climb two spots, to No. 10, beating its July average of 1.61 Mbps. Verizon DSL averaged 1.31 Mbps for August (versus 970 kbps in July), but still finished last among the large U.S. ISPs as viewed through Netflix’s prism.

Other ISPs also gained. Comcast, which announced its interconnection deal with Netflix in February, rose one spot, to No. 4, swapping places with Charter Communications.

Mediacom Communications, which uses a “transparent” caching system from Qwilt in lieu of Open Connect, a private CDN program that uses Netflix-supplied edge caches, gained two spots, to No. 6.

Several other ISPs lost ground in the rankings, even though some produced better results versus the previous month.

Fresh off an interconnection deal with Netflix announced last month, Time Warner Cable averaged 2.59 Mbps in August, up from 2.16 Mbps in July, but still dropped two spots, to No. 8.

Bright House Networks, Frontier, Windstream, and Clearwire all dropped two spots, and CenturyLink fell three spots.

The top three -- Cablevision Systems, Cox Communications and Suddenlink Communications – finished in the same order as they did in July.

Google Fiber (3.53 Mbps) retained the crown for Netflix’s expanded U.S. ISP rankings.

Stock in Windstream Communications, the Little Rock, Ark.-based competitive local exchange carrier soared more than 20% on Tuesday on news the company plans to spin off its network assets as a real estate investment trust (REIT), which could give the company significant tax breaks and have sweeping implications across the broadband market.

Windstream stock was trading as high as $13.30 per share (up $2.77 each or 26.3%) in early trading Tuesday after it said it had received approval from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to spin off its network assets – copper and fiber plant – into a separately publicly traded REIT, which would then lease back those assets to Windstream for $650 million per year. The move, Windstream said in a statement, would allow the company to reduce debt by about $3.2 billion and would significantly reduce its tax burden, freeing up more cash for upgrades and infrastructure improvements. The stock settled down in subsequent trading, closing at $11.83 per share on July 29, up 12.4% ($1.30) each.

“As a result of the transaction, Windstream will offer faster broadband speeds and more robust performance to consumers,” Windstream said in a statement. The company said it would expand availability of 10 Mbps Internet service to more than 80% of its customers by 2018 and make 24 Mbps service available to 30% of customers by that same year, aboiut twice its current availability.

The transaction could have implications for other broadband service providers as well. Stocks in several CLECS and broadband providers were up significantly in early trading as well.

AT&T shares rose 2.6% (94 cents) to $36.59 Tuesday, Verizon was up 1% to $51.97, and smaller CLECS saw even bigger gains – Frontier Communications stock rose 14.3% (85 cents) to $6.79 and CenturyLink increased 5.8% ($2.19 each) to $39.90 per share.

Some cable stocks also saw gains as a result of the Windstream announcement – Cablevision Systems was up 2.3% (44 cents) to $19.54 each.

In a note to clients, Elevation LLC analyst Stephen Sweeney said Windstream’s announcement could have sweeping implications across the telecom landscape, but added that it is still unclear on whether larger-cap companies will try to take advantage of the REIT structure or if the Federal Communications Commission would even allow it.

“We are frankly very surprised that [Windstream’s] network assets were deemed by the IRS to be true real estate assets,” Sweeney said in a research note. “We think it is far from clear if the FCC and other regulatory entities will ultimately approve this structure.”

Windstream said it hopes to close the spin by the first quarter of 2015. The transaction would still need approval from the FCC.

“We think one of the key questions on whether other telecom companies and cable can replicate this [Windstream]  REIT structure (fiber network, copper network, cable plant etc) really should be able to count as real estate assets,” Sweeney wrote. “Also, even if other telecom companies can theoretically pursue similar REIT structures, it is very unclear what the other ramifications are for telecom and cable companies’ ability to pursue future M&A and the tax treatment of deals.  …The FCC is still finalizing its net neutrality policy and we think today’s news on this deal structure could potentially affect the way the FCC approaches net neutrality.”