Incumbent VoIP providers expand service areas, subscriber counts
Today brings further confirmation of what many of us correctly assume as fact- that established cable and telephony providers are ceding no ground to those bodacious VoIP upstarts.
The news comes from Cablevision and Qwest, both strong incumbent providers in their respective spaces. Especially strong in the New York area, Bethpage, N.Y.-based Cablevision has more than three million subscribers, and according to industry statistics, is the sixth largest cable television multi-system operator.
And Qwest is a primary telephony services provider in 13 Western and Pacific Coast states. When you speak to me, you do so over a Qwest phone line.
Today, Qwest took its most aggressive step out of its primary services area by announcing that its Qwest OneFlex VoIP service would now be available in more than 125 U.S. cities. OneFlex debuted in August, servicing 14 cities in its home region, and 12 major national markets.
Qwest OneFlex has a services suite you mightexpect.It includes integrated access over a high-bandwidth Internet connection that adjusts itscapacity depending on the type of call being made; hosted VoIP, which offers a point-and-click hosted solution; andIP Centrex Prime, which ensures Centrex-related call qualitywith an IP-based interface.
Meanwhile, Cablevision has just announced that its Optimum VoiceVoIP service haspassed the 250,000 subscriber mark.Presumably ROI'd by this growth, thenationwide free calling service willremain priced at $34.95 a month all of 2005.
These folks are not giving up easily.