Ringing in VoIP, Ringing Up $$$
Cox will introduce VoIP in its 11 circuit-switched markets when capacity maxes out, vp Dallas Clement says. VoIP is "absolutely ready for prime time now," he tells a Kagan VoIP session. Eyeing AT&T VoIP rollouts (Cfax, 04/20), Clement says increasing competition will accelerate Cox’s deployment agenda, but "not to the point of offering bad-quality service." As for Cox’s 1st VoIP service, in Roanoke, VA, Clement won’t provide subs counts, but says 69% of the early adopters also are triple-play bundle customers. Cox launched VoIP there 4 months back. — Dialing for Dollars: Kagan research estimates 400K of 3.5mln cable telephony customers will be getting phone service via IP by year end, thanks to aggressive rollouts by Cablevision, Time Warner and other MSOs. That IP phone universe will bring operators about $109mln in revenue, vs $1.7bln for overall cable phone revenue. By the end of ’08, 13.3mln of 17mln cable telephony subs will be IP-connected, accounting for $5.3bln of an anticipated $7.2bln phone revenue mine among MSOs. And those figures don’t reflect next-gen services like B2B phone, video telephony and home security apps. — MSOs will start getting cozy with wireless service providers, as is evidenced by Comcast’s partnership with T-Mobile, RelevantC pres William Markey says. (Not to mention Sprint’s rumored 3rd cable deal; its first 2 were with Time Warner Cable and Sunflower Broadband.) "The two regimes are coming together, and we’re excited about what services they’d offer over the next 5-10 yrs," he says. (Simon Applebaum)
