While triple- and quad-play service providers like Comcast and Verizon boast about their huge installed bases, smaller 3G broadband specialists are pushing into regions of the nation not yet touched by the big guys.

NEW YORK CITY (BetaNews) - "Verizon doesn't exist here. AT&T is somewhat under the radar screen, too," said Rodger Johnson, the president and CEO of Knology, in a talk this week at the UBS Global Media & Communications conference. Johnson was referring to the service areas where his business thrives: Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and South Dakota.

His business is providing what he calls "a triple-play offering like Comcast" to customers the big carriers can't reach, usually for geographical and topological reasons.

Knology is already quite adept with free TV promotions, Johnson said, though he's not against deploying other, more fundamental marketing tools such as customer service.

Earlier in the conference, Verizon President and CEO Denny Strigl had given a speech in which he outlined future plans across all areas of Verizon, beyond its activities in FiOS -- which include HDTV giveways through December 15 -- and its emerging involvement in 4G services.

For one thing, Strigl said, Verizon is now boosting its levels of customer service by starting to encourage "proactive" communications with customers.

Knology, however, has already found customer service to be a key ingredient in luring customers away from those bigger service providers that do exist in targeted regions, Johnson said.

Every two hours throughout the day, Johnson gets a message sent to his PDA from Knology's call center, giving him data like the "average speed of answer to a call," metrics he deems critical to customer retention.

Knology has also cross-trained all call center staff across issues with voice, data, and video, an action Johnson sees as the most important ingredient in the company's 82% rate of "first call resolution."

In some Sun Belt communities, Knology sells some of its services through new housing developers, which are installing fiber to the curb.

Knology hasn't yet implemented any FiOS-like fiber-to-the-home services. "But we are prepared to go there, too," he said.