Cablevision Running with VoIP
By Karen Brown -- Multichannel News, 6/29/2003 6:33:00 PM MT
Cablevision Systems Corp. is tearing up the industry memo putting Internet-protocol-telephony on hold until 2004 by coming out with an aggressive plan to roll the technology out to its entire Optimum Online high-speed-data footprint by the third quarter of this year.
The rollout -- which will turn up a telephony service passing 3.1 million homes in the span of roughly one month -- will mark the first full-scale deployment of an all-IP-voice service by a major U.S. cable operator.
Cablevision will test each market before lighting up the voice-over-IP systems, "but really, our plan is to have our entire footprint launched within the span of a month to a month-and-a-half," Optimum Voice vice president of product management Tanya Van Court said. "So we have got a really aggressive launch."
The rollout is an outgrowth of an IP-telephony trial in western Long Island, N.Y., and it will keep the same pricing and features.
Offered for a flat $34.95 per month, Optimum Voice will provide unlimited local, regional and long-distance calling, as well as call waiting, caller ID, call forwarding, call return and three-way calling.
The MSO said it has obtained all necessary regulatory approvals to offer regional and long-distance service.
Cablevision will only market Optimum Voice to its 825,000 Optimum Online customers. But Optimum Online is relatively heavily penetrated, in 22% of available homes and in as much as 39% of homes in some early cable-modem markets.
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