Re:MSO's Face Telephony Decision- Circuit Switched or Packet Voice?
Thread- In a follow-up post regarding AT&T's MediaOne approval, this one explains the two routes an MSO can take. I found the article accurate in it's reporting(rare nowadays). It's either old fashioned dependable circuit-switched voice, or bleeding edge IP. So far there are no rollouts of IP voice. And as the article states, about a million users of circuit voice.
I'm guessing that if Time Warner and other MSO see the success of AT&T's(IF they are successful) cable telephony plans, then TWX will throw in the towel and cut a deal with AT&T similar to what T did with Insight. See:
Message 13232156
But if not, I think the likes of Charter, Comcast, Time Warner and Aldelphia may take a wait and see attitude.
As usual, IMO the VoIP projections of when it will be ready for prime time, are way off. Years off. In the meantime, LD companies like T, pay a HUGE percentage of their revenues out to incumbents for local access. Quite a motivating factor for LD companies to roll out whatever is here and now today and cut deals where it's cable plant doesn't reach. -MikeM(From Florida)
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Cable Guys Vary Telephony Approaches
May 24, 2000-- Cable operators are likely to travel down two separate paths for years to come as they intensify their efforts to take a big slice of the $100 billion local phone market.
Most agree that sending phone calls in data packets through Internet Protocol (IP) technology will be a big part of their future. Progress in technology, standards and operators' plans were much in evidence at this month's National Cable Television Association show in New Orleans.
But when it comes to actually selling services to real customers, traditional circuit-switched telephony is clearly where the action is for cable operators counting on telephone revenue this year, and next year as well. The nation's biggest cable operators are nearly split down the middle in where they're placing most of their bets.
Time Warner, which a year ago had a tentative deal with AT&T to let the phone giant provide phone service for its customers, has gone in a different direction since that deal was sidetracked. The company has focused instead on upgrading cable systems to get them ready for two way services, and selling high-speed Internet access over cable modems. Time Warner has gotten increasingly interested in IP telephony, after evaluating the expense and difficulty of providing circuit-switched services.
Time Warner Chief Technical Officer Jim Chiddix told the cable crowd the company's IP telephony trial in Portland, Maine, will soon move from testing mostly on employees and their families to providing second-line service to customers, as the company works with Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies, Toshiba and other suppliers.
Comcast has also been working on deploying new technology other than telephone service, concentrating on digital cable last year and cable modems this year, said Mark Coblitz, senior vice president of strategic planning at Comcast. "That gave me the luxury of looking out at the technology and what platform we should use. That led us down the IP path," he said.
Coblitz serves as industry chairman for the PacketCable project at industry research consortium Cable Television Laboratories. That group this month released its final feature set for PacketCable residential IP voice service for both basic and extended features.
Comcast plans to continue, and later expand, its IP telephony trial in New Jersey, working mostly with Lucent and Motorola and building on PacketCable.
Cox Communications, meanwhile, has traveled down the traditional telephony path, supplying telephone service over its own switches for 2 years and signing up 134,000 residential customers at the end of the first quarter.
Cox's Executive Vice President Alex Best said the company's estimated $650 capital cost per customer includes a pro-rata share of $125 per customer for backup power. But with an average of $60 per month in revenue per home, the company has decided its investment is a good deal.
AT&T is following Cox's lead, rolling out circuit-switched telephone service this year with expensive backup power in place. With about 40,000 customers, AT&T has a huge job ahead to meet its projection of signing up 400,000 to 500,000 customers by the end of the year. |
