Charter, Mediacom Expand VoIP Service

Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

October 10, 2005

1 Min Read
Charter, Mediacom Expand VoIP Service

Watch out, smaller regional telcos. Cable operators are starting to deliver voice-over-IP (VoIP) to the hinterlands. In the latest example, Mediacom Communications rolled out VoIP service in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Iowa area last Friday, making that its second digital phone market. Mediacom, the largest cable operator in Iowa, said it plans to offer phone service to 65% of the homes that it passes in the state by the end of the year. At the same time, Charter Communications extended VoIP service to Inland Empire and High Desert, CA. That makes them the MSO's first phone markets in California. Charter is charging its existing cable customers $39.99 a month for its VoIP service. Mediacom is charging as little as $29.95 a month for its variety. Let the local phone price wars begin.

About the Author(s)

Alan Breznick

Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

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