Momentum Telecom, a Birmingham, Ala.-based competitive local exchange carrier, is moving into the fiber-to-the-premises service delivery business via its Momentum Division and what it calls a comprehensive digital community platform (CDCP). While the logistics of a division with the same name as a company and a CLEC moving into its own service provisioning can be confusing, the idea behind the initiative for delivering service to new master planned communities is straightforward.

“We deploy RF video and then at a later time — two or three years later — we recommend they migrate over to IPTV and we have an IPTV migration plan,” said Alan Creighton, Momentum president-CEO.

The decision to push fiber into the premises in new communities — including outfitting houses with the necessary networking gear — is not a stretch for Momentum, whose parent company is a licensed CLEC in the United States with about 100,000 customers. The division also focuses on a wholesale product it sells to small cable operators who need help delivering triple-play voice, video and data services.

“They don’t have the technology, they don’t necessarily want to spend the capital to get into the business and, probably more important than both of those, (they don’t have) the billing systems. We’ve provided a billing system that integrates with their billing system, dial tone and we just get them in business so they can offer the triple play,” Creighton said.

It’s worked so well that the Momentum division decided to cut out the middle player and deliver its own fiber-based voice, video, data and IP security package, working with residential and mixed-use real estate developers in new master planned communities with at least 2,000 homes in the Southeast. As part of the initiative, Momentum equips all the homes and businesses with the infrastructure for advanced fiber services. The first community to roll out the Momentum service — pending final details and a certificate of occupancy — is the Creekside of Auburn in Alabama.

Besides advanced communication and entertainment services, with at least 10 Mbps of broadband throughput, new FTTP communities get access to dedicated Intranet sites at no added costs, providing residents with dedicated information that can range from sports and neighborhood events to postings from police and neighborhood organizations, the company said.

“There’s a community in the physical sense but we’re also building a community in the virtual sense by providing Intranet … to make that community more connected,” Creighton said.

Momentum’s offer, he emphasized, favors, but is not exclusive to, residential customers.

“A lot of communities are looking to bring in new jobs. You have to provide voice, video and data to residential, but you also need to provide voice and data to businesses and, in particular, we think we offer a more complete package with IP PBX functionality,” he said.