Consumer Demand and Marketplace Excitement Spread as SureWest Launches Advanced Digital TV

ROSEVILLE, Calif., Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SureWest Communications (Nasdaq: SURW) has launched its highly-anticipated Advanced Digital TV service and customers in the Sacramento region are already buzzing about the product's Whole Home DVR, crystal-clear high definition (HD), extremely fast channel change times and a host of other great new features.

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"We are extremely excited about the enthusiasm this new TV service is creating among residential customers," said Steve Oldham, SureWest's president and chief executive officer. "Just two weeks into our soft sales launch, and with the marketing campaign still forthcoming, initial demand is already sizable. Our sales team is reporting a high level of excitement and sales results that are exceeding our expectations. Our voice and data customers have been excited about adding this new service and we are also capturing brand new customers due to its reliability and ease of use. Combined with our symmetrical 50 Mbps high-speed Internet capability and interactive digital phone service, Advanced Digital TV creates what we believe is the best triple-play package in both quality and value in the Sacramento market."

"My previous providers just don't compare to my experience with SureWest," said Roseville's Brian Lopez, a new SureWest triple-play customer with Advanced Digital TV. "The first time I turned to an HD channel, I felt like I had a brand new TV – the picture quality is amazing! There's no lag when I change channels, it's instantaneous. The flexibility of the whole home DVR is awesome; I can start a show in one room, pause it, and pick it up in any other room in the house. After having the service for a week, I'm in love with my TV."

Powered by the Microsoft Mediaroom Internet Protocol television (IPTV) software platform, Advanced Digital TV brings Whole Home DVR and many other advanced features to over 205,000 Sacramento area marketable homes on SureWest's fiber-to-the-home and copper networks. The launch coincides with new technologies that recently enhanced SureWest's copper network and allow the company to extend its video service to 25,000 existing voice and data marketable copper homes, creating a new and superior triple-play option.

"In addition to the extensive customer benefits, Advanced Digital TV allows us to reach new potential video subscribers and grow the number of services taken by our customers at a very low cost of deployment and without expanding our network," Oldham said. "This launch is key to our long-held strategy of cost-effectively growing revenues on existing networks."

The flexibility of the Microsoft Mediaroom platform allows the TV service to evolve and meet the future needs of customers, including the integration of third-party applications and services that will further blur the lines between traditional TV, Internet and telephone service offerings.

Viewers can take SureWest's innovative new TV service for a test drive at www.surewest.com/change and see first-hand all the exciting features that will take their home entertainment experience to the next level. Features include Whole Home DVR, which allows for watching and recording up to four streams on any TV in the home with just one DVR, a large selection of HD channels and HD On Demand content, a sleek and user-friendly transparent menu system so you never miss what you are watching as you scroll through the guide, and live picture-in-picture preview so you see what's on other networks before changing the channel.

About SureWest

SureWest Communications (www.surewest.com) is one of the nation's leading integrated communications providers and is the bandwidth leader in the markets it serves. Headquartered in Northern California for more than 95 years, the company expanded into the Kansas City region in February 2008 with the acquisition of Everest Broadband, Inc. and offers bundled residential and commercial services that include IP-based digital and high-definition television, high-speed Internet, Voice over IP, and local and long distance telephone. SureWest was the nation's first provider to launch residential HDTV over an IP network and offers one of the nation's fastest symmetrical Internet services with speeds of up to 50 Mbps in each direction on its fiber-to-the-home network.

SOURCE SureWest Communications