Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

I still have until June 11 to make a decision on what to do about my AT&T U-verse service.  

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Back in late December, I managed to negotiate a pretty dramatic reduction in my triple play AT&T services from $169 to $99 per month.  

This lead to some pretty amazing media coverage with my story being told inThe Wall Street Journal, NPRand even an appearance on Good Morning America.  

In telling my story my goal was to help save the American consumer millions of dollars, especially during this economic downturn.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

During the month of December, I spent quite a bit of time going line item by line item in my business and household budget trying to reduce costs.

Since then, Telephony Magazine covered the story and today, The Wall Street Journal did this piece.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

"Telephony Magazine" expands the story on how I got AT&T to reduce my triple play U-verse services reduced by almost 50%.

Read all about it here.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Beseq’s subsidiary Yes Satellite Broadcasting has passed an important milestone in Israel as the Grunau Commission passed the decision.
Yes Satellite Broadcasting will be permitted to market a triple-play telephony package:
"Bezeq telephone and Internet", "service and infrastructure", from Bezeq and Bezeq International respectively. This is the main decision made by the Grunau Commission concerning Bezeq, but it will not be implemented immediately.
Yes’ mother company Bezeq, on the other hand, will not be allowed to market the same triple package, but Yes will now be able to compete with HOT Telecom, which is already marketing this triple package of services. This easing of restrictions on Bezeq offsets another of the commission’s decisions – that Bezeq must allow other telephony operators to use its infrastructure – a policy called unbundling – which hurt the company’s competitive edge. The commission further decided that HOT will not have to adopt an unbundling policy for its infrastructure now.
Haaretz brought me the news and read more there.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Paris, France, 10 December, 2007 – Thomson’s (Euronext 18453; NYSE: TMS) Cirpack VoIP platform has been selected by Cablecom, a leading Mexican cable operator, to launch primary line telephony in December 2007 as part of its new triple play offer. Cablecom, who currently supply TV and Internet services to both residential and business markets have purchased Thomson’s full next-generation networks platforms including “IP Centrex” for business telephony services.

Cablecom is undergoing rapid expansion of its customer base and already has around 600,000 connected customers. Since the beginning of 2007, it has acquired more than 20 other cable operators to consolidate the Mexican market and build an alternative solution to traditional telephony offers. In this context, Cablecom needed a scaleable platform to optimise management of its multiple networks.

“We needed a solution to quickly launch primary line telephony to complete our triple play package” said Eduardo Rodriguez Torres, CTO of Cablecom Telephony. “We found that Thomson’s VoIP platform was the only one on the market capable of matching our expectations in terms of features, reliability and easy of deployment. We have acquired many other cable operator companies and scalability is a key requirement for us. With Thomson’s platform, increasing user capacity and adding new services can be done quickly and transparently, without disruption. Added to this, the Thomson VoIP platform is a field proven solution both in Latin America and with cable operators.”

“Triple-play is becoming a powerful consumer draw for cable operators around the world as they expand their offerings to include IP telephony and data” said Jacques Dunogue, Senior Executive Vice President in charge of the Systems Division for Thomson. “We are delighted to have been selected by Cablecom to deploy this service in Mexico.”

According to analysts IMS Research, there are currently over 104 million households in the Latin American region connected by cable and the growth of these connections migrating to digital cable is rapidly growing at an average of 25% a year. This opens the door for cable operators to offer a full range of triple play services including primary line telephony and video on demand.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it has won a contract from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India’s largest telecommunications service provider, to deploy broadband access across 7000 Indian villages. The contract is a part of the greenfield rural tender from BSNL. The new access network’s high bandwidth will allow BSNL to deliver high data and triple play intensive services such as Video on Demand, Video Multi cast, IPTV, Video Conferencing and VPN among others to its customers. The network will also enable BSNL to provide connectivity to CSCs (Community Service Centres) and other e-governance locations.

The two year agreement includes Supply, Installation and Commissioning , Training and Annual Maintenance Contract for 5 years. As part of the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks is deploying its Gigabit Ethernet-capable IP DSLAMs Surpass hiX5625 (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers) and chassis based access switch (Surpass hiD6615). Nokia Siemens Networks will also supply end-user devices that will enable BSNL to provide speeds of up to 24Mbps for ADSL2+ subscribers over its existing copper infrastructure. The first phase of new lines deployment will be completed by Q1 of 2008.

News Release By Nokia

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Time Warner Cable has started to deploy a VoIP plan in certain markets called "Digital OnePrice", a flat-rate pricing plan for its customers. The service offers 3,000 minutes per month of international calling to 100 countries for $19.95 more a month if you bundle the plan with TV, broadband and VoIP service, TWC’s triple play.

Q:What countries are included in the International OnePrice calling plan?
A:More than 100 countries are included in the International OnePrice calling plan. For a complete list of countries click here.

Q:Can I make calls to cell phones via the International OnePrice calling plan?
A:Calls to cell phones in Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Macau, Paraguay, St. Kitts, Thailand and Trinidad and Tabago are included. Calls to cell phones in all other countries will be charged at a per-minute rate.

The plan was launched this week in San Antonio and New York, but should make its way to other markets shortly, according to a Time Warner Cable spokesman.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

According to a Yankee group report released on Monday, Comcast os the comcastic service provider.
The Cable TV company with it’s multi service model, bundled VoIP IP Telephony services, managed increase the service, 167 percent in 2006 from 3.9 million subscribers to 6.3 million, the report said. The same report predicts that the number will reach 26.2 million by 2011.

This is certainly comcastic for Comcast given that initial service was plagued by quality concerns and the 911 issues are still lingering. But the company seems to have reached the best segment in the market. Many cable users, however, are not aware that their phone service is basd on VOIP, not the traditional copper phone wiring. In a separate 2006 survey, the Yankee Group found that only 9.5 percent of cable telephony subscribers knew what powered their phone service.

Comcast recently emerged as the telephony leader when it reported 2.4 million subscribers during the first quarter of 2007, an 813 percent increase. Those numbers bested previous champ Vonage, a broadband VoIP provider, which struggled last year after a weak IPO and patent battles with Verizon, the report said.

Despite those issues, however, Vonage still managed to add 1.2 million lines in 2006, a 75 percent subscriber increase. The company also added 166,000 lines during the first quarter of 2007.

Maintaining that growth comes with a price – about $300 to attract every new subscriber, the report said. The hefty cost of acquiring new customers likely contributed to the downfall of another broadband VoIP provider, SunRocket, the Yankee Group suggested.

Nonetheless, the Yankee Group predicts that broadband VoIP will grow from 2.8 million customers in 2006 to 6.4 million in 2011. The growth will likely be led by innovative technologies and decreased pricing, the report said.

Going forward, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) VoIP could be a major threat, the report said. This segment of the market is "almost negligible when compared with the overall consumer VoIP market" but it could explode in the coming years given ongoing fiber projects like Verizon’s FiOS and AT&T’s U-verse, it said.

Comcast Tops VOIP Providers in 2006

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

While babyTEL from Canada plans to be bigger here in USA, Our own Comcast is doing comcatic work in Voip space.
The results for the quarter and the year ended December 31, 2006, revenue increased 12% to $26.3 billion for the year reflecting increasing consumer demand for Comcast’s services and the success of Comcast’s Triple Play offer. Revenue generating units (RGUs) increased 69%, or a record 5.0 million from prior year net additions of 3.0 million, to end the year at 50.8 million RGUs.

So how much is this count for VoIP;
VoIP or Digital Voice from Comcast;
Added over 1.5 million Comcast Digital Voice (CDV) customers compared to 290,000 in the prior year.
CDV service now marketed to 32 million homes representing 68% of Comcast’s footprint.
Phone revenue increased 45% to $955 million due to significant growth in CDV subscriber additions, offset by a $132 million decline in circuit-switched phone revenues as Comcast primarily focuses on marketing CDV in most markets. Comcast ended 2006 with a total of 1.9 million CDV customers or 5.7% of available homes.

High-Speed Internet Service;
Added 1.9 million high-speed Internet subscribers during 2006 – highest level of annual additions in Company history.
High-speed Internet revenues increased 23% to $5.5 billion in 2006, reflecting a 1.9 million or 19% increase in subscribers from the prior year and relatively stable average monthly revenue per subscriber. Comcast ended 2006 with 11.5 million high-speed Internet subscribers or 25% penetration of our footprint.

Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation, said, "2006 was simply our best year ever. Powered by our triple play offering and superior products, we added more RGUs than at any other time in our history and reported terrific growth in cable revenue and Operating Cash Flow. This record-setting performance demonstrates substantial operating momentum, and we could not be more enthusiastic about the future. Looking ahead, we are perfectly positioned to continue to offer consumers the best entertainment and communications value proposition available anywhere, and to continue to deliver significant value to our shareholders." Mr. Roberts added, "Reflecting our strong results and outlook, our Board of Directors authorized a 3-for-2 stock split – the 11th stock split in our company’s history."

Full detail of the news release could be found by following the link below.

Links;
Comcast press release "ComCast 2006results"

Source: voipcentral.org

Comcast, Americas largest broadband and cable service provider has made profits during the third quarter for its high quality Comcast Digital Voice and Triple play service.

Comcast has registered nearly 29,000 broadband subscribers for the quarter. Now the broadband subscribers base of Comcast has increased to 536,000 from 507,000 from the previous quarter. While, the digital voice subscribers has touched to 483,000 from 72,000.

The company has also registered more than 558,000 digital cable customers for Q3. The total number of customers for this service during the last quarter was 315,000.

Riding by its Triple Play success, the broadband company has gained a net income of $1.2 billion, or 58 cents per share. In terms of revenue, it is $6.43 billion.

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