Time Warner Cable, while not as flashy as Comcast or not as spectacular as Cablevision is having a whopper of a time with its VoIP service, according to Sam Howe, the operator’s SVP of marketing for voice services. He was making these remarks at a CableLabs media briefing. TWC is adding 15,000 subs-per-week, which is about 50% faster than VoIP additions in April, when I last checked on them. Further proof that CableCos are well positioned to capitalize on VoIP.
At the end of 2004, TWC has about 220,000 VoIP customers, and was adding about 40,000 a month through April. That makes it about 380,000 at the end of April 2004. If you assume 40,000 for May and 60,000 for June, that’s another 480,000. I wonder at whose expense is the acceleration happening? Baby Bells or upstarts like Vonage? Time Warner Cable,now has VoIP available in most of its footprint, and will be close to 90 percent to 95 percent VoIP-enabled by year-end.
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11:25 AM PT
SBC fights Cable; Offers Free Services
In an attempt to stem the loss of subscribers to cable companies, SBC said that it would offer three free months of broadband Internet service and satellite television to new and existing phone customers who cancel their cable services…
11:28 AM PT
SBC fights Cable; Offers Free Services
Cable companies have been doing very well with their Voice over IP bundle (VoIP). Om Malik reported recently that Time Warner is having ‘monster’ growth this year and is adding 10,000 customers every week. Cablevision is adding 7000 a day….
6:16 AM PT
[...] The 3Q 2005 numbers show that the growth has been especially strong amongst the cable guys, though the endless marketing budget has helped Vonage defy the odds and stay at the top of VoIP rankings. So have other smaller players - for example, 8×8’s subscribers have grown more than 132% in the first nine months of 2005. Stephan Beckert, who tracks the VoIP business for Telegeography points out that all the e911 stuff hasn’t really had any material impact on the business. Even the recent spurt in outages and degrading services (in some cases) hasn’t slowed down the momentum. As seen from these numbers, when VoIP-based phones are sold as simply phones by Cable companies, consumers are happy to switch. The number of voice-over-broadband subscribers increased 33 percent in the sec-ond quarter, from 2.7 million to 3.6 million. Voice over broadband subscribers have grown 400 percent since the third quarter of 2004, when only 714,000 VoIP lines were in service. The stronger-than-expected growth in the third quarter has prompted TeleGeography to increase modestly its forecast of total subscribers at year-end 2005 from 4.2 million to 4.4 million [...]
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2:44 PM PT
It’s funny to me that Wall Street forced AT&T to abandon the idea of the triple play (actually quad if you count mobility as another play) almost 5 years ago when now it is quite obvious to everyone that they had exactly the right idea. In the end though, who do you blame: ignorant analysts with too much power or gutless management who bow under their pressure.
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