For Canby Telecom customers located in (where else?) Canby, Oregon, today's a good day. The programming provider has just announced that you now have access to 36 high-def stations on its HD IPTV network, with over two dozen of 'em delivered to Canby via IP-PRIME. Among the new channels are Discovery HD, Disney HD, Showtime HD, Fox News HD, ESPN HD, A&E HD and Food Network HD, plus a handful of local broadcast services. There's no mention of cost or any of that, so here's hoping they're being beamed out for free (or mighty close to it).

Following up on a soft launch back in February, Comstar has gone all out with its STREAM high definition IPTV service in Moscow. Coming hand in hand with a speed bump to 20Mb/s this is all a part of the company's ongoing fiber / ADSL2 rollout, offering three HDTV channels -- MelodyZen, Voom TV and Luxe TV -- for RUB 200 ($8 U.S.), and HD VOD movies for $4 U.S. each. Although the launch is a bit behind schedule, plans to reach 80% of subscribers by the end of '09 are still in motion, but we're left wondering why Discovery HD didn't make the final cut.

We've already seen that Apple's iPhone is a mighty fine home controller, but it looks as if AT&T bigwigs are just now getting wind of that. At a recent event where the company showcased some of its newly developed technology, it talked up eventually linking the iPhone and its fiber-based U-verse service. More specifically, the iPhone could be used "as a remote control," and iPhone owners could also listen to voicemails on their television or watch recorded shows on their handset. There's no word on when said features could eventually be rolled out, but may we implore AT&T to spend more on U-verse expansion before making it even more awesome for those lucky enough to have it?

[Via phonescoop]

Just days after AT&T announced that its fiber-based U-verse TV service was available in select parts of Jacksonville and South Bend comes news that it's also ready for Central Arkansas. Consumers in parts of over six local communities -- including Little Rock, North Little Rock, Benton, Cammack Village, Maumelle and Sherwood -- can phone up the provider and order U-verse TV, high-speed internet and digital phone service. Per usual, AT&T has made clear that it'll be expanding in Arkansas "on an ongoing basis," and considering just how dangerously close all of this is to Mississippi, we can't see the Magnolia State holding out much longer.

Ons Net, a FTTH provider in The Netherlands, has just cranked up a new promotion that should be music to the ears of consumers in that area of the world. Starting on September 1st, HDTV programming will be offered up for free with the purchase of its digital television package. Currently, said tier contains 51 channels for €7.50 ($11), and an additional 20 channels can be purchased for €3.95 ($6). Granted, you will need to purchase a set-top-box for €149.95 ($223), but that's a minuscule price to pay for gratis access to Discovery HD, Brava HD and soon-to-come HD versions of Dutch and Belgian public channels, right?

[Via Broadband TV News]

São Paulo, Brazil stand up, you're first in line for auto-stereoscopic (read: no glasses) 3D IPTV broadcasts courtesy of Telefónica/TVA and, we assume, that swank WOWvx-powered 1080p 52-inch Philips 3D HDTV promised to hit shelves by year end. Fortunately it now has a price, unfortunately, that price is €18,000 and requires you live in the Jardins neighborhood, hooked up to its fiber network in order to have the capacity to suck down all that 3D. Consumer accessibility is pegged at "inside three or four years", so you start saving, the SMPTE will figure out how to make it all work, and we'll sit back and remember how awesome Captain EO was that one time at Epcot Center. Everyone has to do their part.

AT&T already has a small TV footprint in Kansas City, and now neighboring Kansas is finally getting some U-verse love. As of this week, Wichita-area residents have one more choice when it comes to programming, as U-verse TV, high-speed internet and digital phone have arrived. As always, there's no telling whether your domicile is within range, so go ahead and cross your fingers while making the call.

Pardon us for asking when we know the answer, but are you ready for some football? With the Brett Favre saga saturating the NFL headlines, it's a sigh of relief to read something unrelated to the newest New York Jet. AT&T U-verse users who find themselves absorbed in their fantasy football league will be utterly elated to find that Yahoo! Sports' Fantasy Football is now available directly in the U-bar. The interactive application enables users to "conveniently track their fantasy football team and receive customized information on their favorite NFL teams directly on their U-verse TV," though it won't make piecing together a winning team any easier.

Coming off a somewhat busy week last week, it seems that Verizon's worker bees are still out in full force (begrudgingly or otherwise) in order to keep those FiOS TV installations going at a rapid pace. Up first, we're seeing the fiber-based programming service head to even more apartments in Northern Virginia, this time to Archstone Apartments in 14 NoVA communities. Next, we're seeing that yet another locale in Washington state (Brier) has awarded Verizon with a video franchise, while four more Massachusetts towns (Northborough, Stoughton, Stow and Sutton) now have the ability to order FiOS TV. We'll see you next week -- here's to hoping your neck of the woods gets covered within the next seven days.

Read - Virginia expansion
Read - Washington expansion
Read - Massachusetts expansion

Finally, a multi-system operator that see this whole two-way CableCARD problem the same way we do. Don't get us wrong, we want to get rid of our providers STB as much as the next, but the way we see it is tru2way isn't that great, but is better than nothing. Just like Verizon, we'd like to see "a cable-centric approach to interactive connectivity [that] does not inhibit technological innovation... or disadvantage other segments of the video marketplace." Or in other words, having the choice of what hardware that we may use on our provider's network isn't good enough, we want to choose the software too. While the rest of the cable industry thinks tru2way is open, we think it is about as open as AOL Internet access was-- so yeah, it's a walled garden. The other thing that really hit home with us about Verizon's statement, was that it thinks the approved solution should be an "all-provider" solution, meaning it should be the same no matter if the provider uses coax, fiber, copper or satellite to deliver services. We couldn't agree more, and would love nothing more than to be able to use an HD TiVo (for example) on any provider we wanted without being forced to give up any features such as HD or VOD.

For the third week in a row, we've got Verizon's FiOS TV service headed to new parts of Washington. This week, video franchises were approved in both Kenmore and Marysville, while the rest of the action went down on the east coast. Starting at the bottom, we've got Florida's Hidden Creek development in Tampa getting served; moving on up, we see 23,000 households in Rockville, Maryland getting blanketed sometime later this year. Finally, residents of Amityville and Kent, NY can expect FiOS TV soon so long as the approvals slide on by the New York State Public Service Commission. Pretty busy week, huh Verizon? Let's keep it up. We'll see you next week -- here's to hoping your neck of the woods gets covered within the next seven days.

Read - Washington expansion
Read - Florida expansion
Read - Maryland expansion
Read - New York expansion

We've known that FiOS TV was headed to the Pacific Northwest (Washington, in particular) for awhile now, and just a week after said state nabbed its first FiOS TV community, along comes Everett claiming seconds. We've also got Portsmouth, Virginia and Northborough, Massachusetts joining the in-crowd, but that's it for the last full week in July. We'll see you next week -- here's to hoping your neck of the woods gets covered within the next seven days.

Read - Northborough, Massachusetts expansion
Read - Portsmouth, Virginia expansion
Read - Everett, Washington expansion

Although Oregon received those shiny new high-def channels a few days back, everyone else (Ft. Wayne notwithstanding) is wondering when exactly they can expect 'em. Verizon has just posted up an official rollout schedule, which has New York getting them today, Northern New Jersey on July 30th and the rest of the gang sometime in August. Let us know if your town gets anything early (or late), won't you?

[Thanks, J]

We're still trying to decipher all of this, but we've received word that AT&T is intending to create two different service levels for its U-verse customers. Essentially, it will be extending the current loop limitation from around 3,000 feet to 3,400 feet from the VRAD, which sounds as if this could enable more customers to receive service in U-verse areas. For folks less than 3,000 feet away from the VRAD, 2 HD / 2 SD service will be available; for individuals between 3,001 and 3,400 feet away, you'll be stuck with 1 HD / 3 SD -- but at least you've have the option of signing up, right? Early signs show the two-tiered service kicking off in St. Louis real soon, with a dozen or so other markets following suit by October.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

It took awhile, but the rumor finally proved true. AT&T's U-verse has at long last made it to South Florida. Just days after Verizon announced that its competing FiOS TV service was available to some 800,000 members of the Sunshine State, in soars AT&T to bring its fiber-based programming service to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Currently, consumers in parts of dozens of communities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties can place their order, while folks in Palm Beach county will be forced to wait until July 28th. No word on how soon it'll reach your neck of the woods down there, but the carrier has vowed to "make U-verse services available to more homes throughout South Florida on an ongoing basis."