Net2Phone gets NCTC hunting license
Jeff Baumgartner, CED
10/13/04
Net2Phone Inc. has obtained "Platinum Vendor" status with the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC), a distinction that gives Net2Phone the green light to market its turnkey VoIP platform to the co-op's MSO membership.
Net2Phone said it is the first telephony provider to obtain Platinum status with the NCTC, which represents more than 1,000 U.S. small- and mid-sized cable operators.
Under the deal, Net2Phone will offer predefined pricing to all NCTC members, regardless of their size. Net2Phone did not disclose those figures.
"The NCTC represents a greatly underserved market, and we believe this relationship presents a fantastic opportunity for their members to move forward in offering a voice product," said Michael Pastor, president of Net2Phone's cable telephony division.
The formal addition of Net2Phone to the NCTC mix will likely ramp up competition with Vonage, which does not have a similar "stamp of approval" with the co-op, but has signed a few deployments with smaller MSOs.
Vonage, however, is a SIP-based, "best effort" voice service. Net2Phone, meanwhile, offers a QoS-based PacketCable approach, though it also markets a SIP solution. |
