CABLE SURPASSES 2.5 MILLION VOIP SUBSCRIBERS AT YEAR’S END

摘要

The Bells should watch their backs. With several U.S. and Canadian cable giants starting or expanding their VoIP rollouts in the fall, the cable industry’s IP telephony customer count easily surged past 2.5 million as 2005 drew to an end. At the same time, total N. American cable telephony subscribers, including those served by either circuit-switched or VoIP technology, passed the 5 million mark, according to the latest statistics from Kinetic Strategies Inc. Early indications are that N. American cable operators, coming off a strong 3rd quarter for cable IP telephony, continued to sign up VoIP subscribers at a brisk pace in the 4th quarter. For instance, Kinetic Strategies estimates that the 10 or so biggest cable companies netted more than 400,000 voice customers in Oct. and Nov., after gaining nearly 590,000 VoIP customers in the 3rd quarter.nnAs usual, Time Warner Cable appears to have led the way in the 4th quarter, signing up at least an estimated 225,000 IP phone customers. Time Warner, which closed the 3rd quarter with an industry-leading 854,000 VoIP subscribers, announced in early Dec. that it had hit the 1 million subscriber milestone, about a month ahead of schedule. As a result, Time Warner still accounts for about 40% of the industry’s IP phone customers and is quickly catching up to Vonage as the nation’s largest VoIP provider.