Sprint signs on Mediacom in cable VoIP pact

Sprint today continued its push into the cable telephony market, announcing that it has signed an agreement with Mediacom Communications to provide a variety of services as part of Mediacom’s voice-over-IP service rollout planned for early next year.

Under terms of the deal Sprint will supply provisioning services, access to softswitches, 911 delivery, local number portability, operator and directory services and termination to other carriers. Mediacom, the eighth largest cable operator in the U.S. with 2.7 million homes passed in 23 states, is the largest thus far to take as many services from Sprint. Sprint signed an agreement earlier this year with Time Warner, but that contract does not include access to Sprint’s softswitches.

As part of the agreement, Mediacom will pass most voice calls through its own cable modem termination system (CMTS) to Sprint, which will bring it to a softswitch and send traffic to its final destination via its own network. Sprint will use its existing softswitches as part of the service, said Mark Chall, director of service delivery for Sprint’s Cable Solutions Group.

"The heavy lifting is establishing the interconnections with the local carrier where necessary," he said.

In many cases, that interconnection point will be a nearby tandem switch on Sprint’s network.

The agreement is similar to other deals that Sprint has struck with cable operators in that the carrier will remain behind the scenes while the cable operator maintains the brand relationship with end users. That includes providing level one support, billing and installation services. In a typical scenario, Mediacom will replace existing cable modems in users’ homes with a DOCSIS 1.1 device that can operate as both a cable modem and a telephony adapter.

"The beauty of that solution is that from a customer experience standpoint, nothing changes inside the home," said Mike Smith, director of business development in Sprint's Cable Solutions Group.

Mediacom’s service, which is being marketed as primary line replacement, will include caller ID with name, call waiting, call forwarding and voicemail. Mediacom, as well as other cable operators, also will have access to new VoIP applications as they are developed for or by Sprint.

"The business model that we’re deploying with Mediacom is technically and economically feasible to take is up market and down market," Smith said.