Cablevision Chooses IDT Telecom For International Long Distance Phone Service
[September 23, 2004]
NEWARK, N.J. --(Business Wire)-- Sept. 23, 2004 -- Agreement Provides Cablevision Optimum Voice(R) Customers With Access To Low Cost International Direct-Dial Calling From Home and Away
IDT Telecom today announced that it has signed an agreement to provide international long distance phone service to Cablevision Systems Corporation's Optimum Voice digital voice-over-cable customers. The new service also includes a remote calling feature that allows customers to make international calls from any location in the U.S., Puerto Rico or U.S. Virgin Islands. IDT Telecom is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT, IDT.C), an international telecom, entertainment and technology company.
Cablevision's Optimum Voice became available across the company's footprint of nearly 4.4 million homes in the New York metropolitan area late last year, and the company had 115,000 customers as of June 30, adding 3,400 customers on average each week during the second quarter.
"IDT and Cablevision are extending the reach of cable telephony around the globe," said Jim Courter, IDT's CEO. "To go along with unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada, Cablevision's Optimum Voice customers now can direct-dial international calls at extremely competitive rates, with the added convenience of being able to make these discounted international calls while away from home."
To activate international calling, Optimum Voice customers must visit the Optimum Voice Web site at www.optimumvoice.com and register using either a credit or debit card with a minimum initial payment of $10. Customers can then visit the site to purchase additional minutes, to activate an "auto-recharge" option that can automatically recharge the account when the balance falls below $5, or to view their international calling detail and billing status.
Customers can also make calls to international destinations from any location within the U.S., Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands by dialing a toll-free access number and entering their ten-digit telephone number and security code. The usage is automatically billed to their Optimum Voice international calling balance. This innovative remote calling feature also allows customers to register up to five telephone numbers for remote calling privileges without having to enter their 10-digit phone number and security code.
IDT Corporation, through its IDT Telecom subsidiary, is a facilities-based, multinational carrier that provides a broad range of telecommunications services to retail and wholesale customers worldwide. IDT Telecom, by means of its own national telecommunications backbone and fiber optic network infrastructure, provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance and domestic all-distance telephony and prepaid calling cards. IDT Entertainment is the IDT subsidiary focused on developing, acquiring, producing and distributing computer-generated and traditionally animated productions and other productions for the film, broadcast and direct-to-consumer markets. Menlo Park is the IDT division principally responsible for the Company's initiatives in radio broadcasting, brochure distribution and new video technologies. Net2Phone, Inc., a subsidiary of IDT Corporation, is a leading provider of high-quality global retail Voice over IP services and offers a fully outsourced cable telephony service to cable operators allowing cable operators to provide residential phone service to their subscribers. |
