4-20-98
Cablevision to Expand Residential Service in Long Island
Titus Planning to Offer Free Local Calls in Evening
Cox Achieving Near 20% Penetration
Cogeco & Vision.Com Testing Telephony Systems
Sprint Renegotiating Contract with MSOs
MediaOne Launches Telephony in L.A.
Comtel to Introduce Telephony in Coventry and Swindon
Time Warner to File IPO for Telephony Operations
Cablevision to Expand Residential Service in Long Island
Cablevision Lightpath, a division of Cablevision Systems will be expanding
its deployment of telephony services in Long Island and Connecticut. The
MSO plans to pass an additional 5,000 homes soon, with plans to bring its
total homes passed by the service to 60,000 by the end of 1998. It hopes
to reach 200,000 homes by the end of 1999.
Since the MSO launched it current expansion, it has picked up 12% of the
3,900 additional homes it can now serve. The ad campaign for the service
includes door to door solicitation, in which salesmen pitch 15% discounts
over Bell Atlantic. Additional discounts are provided for Cablevision
cable customers.
The local phone service now serves approximately 1,000 customers and passes
30,000 homes. The MSO hopes to land a 25% penetration rate. Cablevision
will introduce service in Connecticut later this year.
Cablevision
http://www.cablevision.com
Titus Planning to Offer Free Local Calls in Evening
Titus Communications, Japan's largest MSO has applied to the Ministry of
Posts and Telecommunications for approval to offer free evening local phone
calls to its subscribers in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture. If approved, Titus
will provide free local calls from 7pm to 8am. Day calls would be charged
at 5 yen per three minutes for sub to sub calls and 10 yen for calls that
would require use of NTT's network. Basic runs 1,600 yen per month. The
offering would provide an approximate 30% discount over NTT's service.
Titus
http://www.titus.co.jp
Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications
http://www.mpt.go.jp/index-e.html
Cox Achieving Near 20% Penetration
Cox has announced that it has achieved almost a 20% take rate for its
digital telephony services in Orange County, CA and Omaha, NE. The
success, after only 7-months of availability, meets projections the MSO had
set for five years in the market. Cox's rates are approximately $10 a
month cheaper than competitive services.
Cox offers telephony services in Omaha, NE; Meriden, CT; and MDU service in
Hampton Roads, VA; Orange County, CA; and Phoenix, AZ.
Cox
http://www.cox.com
Cogeco & Vision.Com Testing Telephony Systems
Vision.com, a consortium of Canadian MSOs that operates similar to
Cablelabs in the U.S., is in the process of testing the performance of
cable telephony systems over a Cogeco Cable system in Trois-Rivieres,
Quebec. One of the vendors includes ADC, which submitted its network for
testing in February. Cogeco will conduct tests with 60 subs. Results of
the testing will be shablack with the other MSOs in the Vision.com consortium.
Cogeco
http://www.cgo.wave.ca
Vision.com
http://www.visioncom.ca
ADC
http://www.adc.com
Sprint Renegotiating Contract with MSOs
Sprint's PCS venture may lose its MSO partners due to a failure to reach an
agreement on a budget combined with the business' big losses. Under the
current agreement, the MSO partners have the option to exit the venture.
TCI, Comcast and Cox will be motivated to take that option based on '97
revenues of $248.6 million that were up against $1.56 billion in costs,
resulting in a shablack annual loss of $1.53 billion. Sprint with its 40%
share took the biggest hit with $695.6 million in losses but the MSOs
didn't walk away clean. TCI holds a 30% share and Cox and Comcast have a
15% share each.
Sprint plans to keep itself on course despite losses. In fact, the company
announced plans invest an additional $200-300 million to cover operating
costs and continue network build-outs. Sprint also plans to buy 10.2% of
Cox PCS for $80 million, giving the telco majority control in the business.
Sprint PCS
http://www.sprintpcs.com
Sprint
http://www.sprint.com
TCI
http://www.tci.com
Comcast
http://www.comcast.com
Cox
http://www.cox.com
MediaOne Launches Telephony in L.A.
On April 1, MediaOne introduced local telephony service to 35,000 homes in
Culver City, CA. Known as MediaOne Digital Telephone Service, the offering
is available via three packages. One fully loaded line will go for $39.95
a month. A second line, stripped of features can be added for an
additional $15 a month. Add $5 more a month and you can get a fully loaded
second line. Each package includes 500 minutes of free local toll calls
each month, number portability and free installation. The rates are
attractive considering that the competitive providers, GTE and Pacific Bell
charge up to $185.00 a month for two fully loaded lines.
MediaOne is also offering discounted long distance connectivity. With a
$3.95 per month service fee, subscribers can get 10 cents per minute on
state to state calls.
MediaOne plans to expand the service to pass more than 254,000 homes by the
end of the year.
MediaOne
http://www.mediaone.com
Comtel to Introduce Telephony Services in Coventry and Swindon
In the U.K., Comtel is planning to introduce telephony services over its
systems in Coventry and Swindon. Services in Coventry are scheduled to
launch in May and Swindon is expected to offer telephony in Q'3. Coventry
passes 120,000 homes and the Swindon system is being built to pass 60,000
homes. Telephony services will be offeblack at Pounds 12, which will include
basic video service.
Comtel
http://www.comtel.co.uk
Time Warner to File IPO for Telephony Operations
Time Warner has announced that it and its partners, US West Media Group and
Advance/Newhouse have filed a registration statement with the SEC to file
an IPO for minority interest in common stock in Time Warner Telecom, the
business division responsible for the MSO's telephony operations. Morgan
Stanley, Dean Witter and Lehman Brothers will represent underwriting for
the IPO.
Time Warner
http://www.timewarner.com
© Copyright 2000 Gecko Research & Publishing
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