Embarq to Test In-House Television Service

America’s fourth largest local telephone carrier, Embarq Corp., plans to test its own television service in one of its existing markets next year, in hopes of better competing with major cable companies like Time Warner and Comcast.

In recent months, Embarq and other telecoms have been losing hundreds of thousands of customers to incumbent cable operators, many of which have begun marketing competitively priced “digital phone” services to existing cable TV subscribers.

Embarq already resells satellite TV services though an agreement with EchoStar Communications, but as larger carriers like AT&T and Verizon experiment with their own fiber-optic television deployments, Embarq is preparing to test the waters of head-to-head competition with big cable.

“We think that the costs of getting into video are coming down and the economics are there,” said Embarq’s president of consumer markets, Harrison Campbell. “At this point we feel better about it, and we’re going to dip our toe in.”

Embarq declined to name the city where it plans to test the service, or say when Embarq TV may be commercially available.