Area 51 and NTOP
Welcome to Area 51, the latest twist to the CED Broadband 50. Here we list the companies that might, just might, be on the cusp of something special. But it also includes efforts or activities that we still file under “alien technology” because they have yet to be seen in their true form or prove themselves out as a market-maker.
cedmagazine.com
Net2Phone
We love Net2Phone’s notion of a pre-integrated IP telephony play for cable operators, and its care and feeding of the other hard parts the service presents (interconnects, tariffs, etc.). We also like its new “franchise” business model, which actually applies more risk on Net2Phone and less on the operator. And its VoIP partnership and subsequent trials with Liberty Cablevision are to be saluted. But we’ll be more convinced about this approach when the company manages to secure some business outside of the Liberty Media family. We doubt it’ll be too much longer before we hear such news.
[Since that was written, NTOP announced business outside the Liberty Media family –:]
tmcnet.com
NTOP’s MOU with Cequel provides for NTOP to receive 90% of the revenue --
Net2Phone to Provide Cable Telephony Services for Cequel III's Cebridge Connections
Cebridge Connections, a St. Louis-based cable operator managed by Cequel III, LLC, and Net2Phone Cable Telephony, LLC, (NCT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Net2Phone, today announced their entry into a memorandum of understanding, subject to negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement, under which Net2Phone would provide cable voice services for Cebridge.
Cebridge Connections expects to begin the process of deploying cable telephony services by the first quarter of 2004, starting with selected markets in Texas and Missouri that represent about 150,000 high-speed-data homes passed.
Net2Phone's cable voice platform utilizes the industry's Packet Cable compliant standards and permits cable operators like Cebridge Connections to deploy toll-quality residential telephone service over their existing cable infrastructure.
Through the Net2Phone Cable Telephony model, Cebridge Connections will maintain control of the service brand and Tier I customer and technical support, while Net2Phone will support the back office Packet Cable infrastructure, switching and transport, and Tier II+ technical support to deliver a fully managed Quality of Service (QoS) IP solution.
Ultimately, Cebridge Connections customers will be offered the benefits of a bundled package of video, high-speed Internet access, and telephone services.
[NTOP is chairing the cable telephony/cable MSO presentation at the Worldwide Broadband Forum in Korea, May 2004-:
Message 19547244
[In PRs and in during its last earnings conference call, Greenberg said had a pipeline of msos it was either working with (tier 2), or who have spoken to it (tier 1)]:
1) “Our pipeline is full of cable operators that are eager to deploy telephony solutions over their HFC networks,” he says. To date Net2Phone has announced deals with Liberty Cablevision in Puerto Rico and CeBridge Connections in the U.S. (see Puerto Ricans Chatting Away).”
2) Dow Jones Real-Time News for InvestorsSM
08:43 a.m. 11/26/2003
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Stephen Greenberg, chief executive of Net2Phone Inc. (NTOP) believes voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, an alternate to traditional telephony, is the future of
calling.
In a CNBC interview Wednesday, Greenberg said people used to view VoIPs as disruptive but now thanks to excellent quality and lower costs, it represents a "great opportunity for the future."
As the market for VoIPs matures there will be a big shift into the voice application from standard phone lines and Net2Phone will be at the forefront of that shift, Greenberg said.
Greenberg added that Net2Phone is looking to provide services through cable providers. The company already has agreements with two cable companies and said there are many more contracts in the pipeline, Greenberg said.
By Jen Ryan, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5294
3) NTOP earnings call transcript – October 22, 2003
Steve: Okay. Let me … I'll let Mike Pastor get to the size of what we are really talking about here is Tier Two MSOs, which is a large majority of MSOs in the world. But we do have interest from a
number of Tier One's, but our real sweet spot, for a number of reasons coming out of the box – seems to be Tier Twos. But Mike, would you give David some concept of what we are talking about by way of market size?
Mike P.: Sure. David, Mike Pastor, how are you?
David: Hi, Mike.
Mike P.: In terms of defining the overall Tier Two market size, there is no definitive data that we can put our hands on and say we know this is accurate, but through a compilation of a number of sources and primarily through Kagan research as well as our own internal analysis, if you look at the three markets that we target, and that's Latin America, Western Europe along with some of the Eastern European countries, and the U.S., and then you apply some terms of Tier Two, and it's a little bit different by each market so I am not going to grill into that piece, but in the U.S., you are talking about approximately 105 million homes passed, of which approximately 20 million of those homes are served by Tier Two or Tier Three cable operators. In Western Europe, you are looking at about 90 million approximately homes passed, and it's a little bit higher percentage that are served by Tier Two's as far as we can tell – it's closer to about a third. I mean maybe 30 to 35 million homes passed. And in Latin America, you are looking at approximately 50 million homes passed total on the cable and about again we estimate there are about a third – maybe 25% to maybe a third of that market being Tier Two as well. So you are looking at maybe another 15 million or so homes in Latin America. |
