Comcast Unveils VoIP Rollout Plans

Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

January 10, 2005

1 Min Read
Comcast Unveils VoIP Rollout Plans

Comcast has finally made it official, spelling out its ambitious plans to roll out voice-over-IP (VoIP) service to nearly all of its homes passed by the middle of next year. At a financial investors conference in Phoenix earlier today, Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts and other senior executives said the company will market IP telephony to 15 million homes in 20 markets in 2005 and another 25 million households in 2006. Comcast, the largest MSO in North America with more than 1.2 million circuit-switched phone customers that it inherited from AT&T Broadband, will not compete with the likes of Vonage on price. It plans to charge cable video and data subscribers $39.95 a month for unlimited local and long-distance service in the U.S. Customers who want only phone service will pay $54.95 a month. But Comcast will compete on features. The MSO will allow subscribers to check voice mail from a Web site. It will also test videophone, call-waiting and combined cable-mobile services. The MSO aims to sign up 8 million VoIP customers within five years.

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.

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like