[Sarah Hofstetter, senior vice president of corporate communications at Net2Phone, says Charter Communications will operate its own network for eight VoIP markets, but it plans to outsource 17 other markets to another VoIP provider such as Net2Phone. Adelphia is also considering outsourcing VoIP, she adds.]
Posted 05/01/2004
Consumer VoIP Hits the Big Time
By Paula Bernier
x-changemag.com
In a move many hailed as undisputed evidence that VoIP has arrived for the mass market, AT&T this spring launched residential VoIP in areas of New Jersey and Texas, and announced plans to bring the service to 100 major markets by year’s end.
The move was expected. AT&T has been running trial VoIP services since October in three states; and in December, the company announced plans to roll out residential broadband VoIP in major cities across the United States in 2004, beginning in select markets in the first quarter.
Still, having a household name like AT&T actually launch the service brought additional fire to the already red-hot VoIP arena. Indeed, AT&T says it expects to sign 1 million business and consumer customers for VoIP services by yearend 2005. To make that happen, the company is doing mass market advertising via television, radio, print, direct mail and online channels.
The new bring-your-own-broadband service, AT&T CallVantage, is generally available to consumers in New Jersey and the metropolitan areas of Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. The service costs $39.99 a month, but was temporarily offered at a $19.99 introductory rate to those that signed on by May 31. That includes unlimited local and long-distance domestic calling, including calls to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; discount rates for international calling; and various enhanced calling features (see chart). The company says it plans to add many more advanced features over the next 12 months.
Of course, AT&T isn’t the only big boy moving into VoIP service, although it is the most aggressive. In December, Qwest Communications International Inc. launched a small, free trial of residential local IP voice service in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area — where Vonage is already offering VoIP services.
And early this year, Verizon said by mid-2004 it expects to offer hosted VoIP and multimedia services for businesses and consumers.
Of course, the cable companies are also in various stages of rollout with VoIP.
The most aggressive is Cablevision Systems Corp., which offers Optimum Voice across Long Island, Westchester and New York, N.Y.; New Jersey; and Connecticut service areas. Charter Communications is offering primary line VoIP service in Wausau, Wisc., and expects to launch two additional VoIP markets in 2004, with VoIP in its top eight to 10 markets within the next several years. Comcast Corp. has been testing VoIP in the suburbs of Philadephia. Cox Communications Inc. in December launched VoIP in its first market — Roanoke, Va. Time Warner Cable also is offering VoIP in a handful of markets.
While many believe the bundles of voice, video and high-speed Internet services the large telcos and cablecos will be able to offer will be hard for smaller service providers to compete with, startup Vonage Holdings owns the majority of the residential VoIP market at this point. Vonage is joined in the residential/SOHO VoIP market by a variety of similar startups including 8x8’s Packet8, Phonom and Skype Technologies S.A.
Meanwhile, such companies as Vonage, Net2Phone and now Level 3 Communications Inc. are trying to make it easier for additional companies to join the VoIP fray, or existing players to more affordably expand their VoIP footprints.
While Net2Phone continues to serve 100,000 VoIP users directly, it has moved out of the directto- consumer business and now is positioned to enable others to offer VoIP.
Sarah Hofstetter, senior vice president of corporate communications at Net2Phone, says Charter Communications will operate its own network for eight VoIP markets, but it plans to outsource 17 other markets to another VoIP provider such as Net2Phone. Adelphia is also considering outsourcing VoIP, she adds.
This March at the VON show in Santa Clara, Calif., Level 3 Communications also unveiled a wholesale VoIP program to help other service providers target residential users with VoIP.
The company expects to make its (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service and HomeTone, which are carrier-customizable and turnkey solutions, respectively, available in more than 300 of the largest markets in the United States by the end of 2004. |
