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VoIP
Services Lag, But Cable Telephony Subscribers Continue to Increase
With both increasing consumer demand for cable voice services and
decreasing operator deployment costs, cable telephony has a solid
future, according to In-Stat/MDR.
The high-tech market research firm reports that as cable TV operators
around the globe have upgraded their hybrid fiber coaxial infrastructure,
cable telephony services have become widely available in North America
and Western Europe, and as of mid-2002, there were almost 8 million
worldwide subscribers.
In addition, total worldwide cable telephony service revenues are
expected to rise from $3 billion in 2002 to over $7.5 billion in
2006.
However, cable telephony faces some stiff challenges as operators
continue to scale their voice services. “Even with the modest
success of cable telephony, the worldwide cable industry is in no
position to rest on its laurels,” says Mike Paxton, a Senior
Analyst with In-Stat/MDR.
“The industry is experiencing competitive threats from alternative
telephony services, less-than-friendly regulatory environments,
a global economic slow-down, and numerous marketing and technical
hurdles that come with the introduction of voice services.”
Even in the midst of these challenges, most cable operators in
North America and Europe remain committed to adding cable telephony
service to their existing service portfolios.
In-Stat/MDR also reports that:
- Cable operators like AT&T Broadband, NTL, and Telewest already
serve a million cable telephony subscribers each.
- The first small-scale IP-based cable telephony services are expected
to become available in North America and Europe in 2003.
- Total worldwide cable telephony subscribers are forecasted to
grow from 8.6 million at the end of 2002 to over 22 million by 2006
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