Time Warner partners with MCI and Sprint for VoIP

Time Warner Cable has contracted with MCI and Sprint to carry long-distance traffic, terminate calls over the PSTN and provide enhanced features for Time Warner’s upcoming nationwide rollout of voice over IP.

The two IXCs each will handle half of the MSO’s voice over IP traffic, though the companies did not say specifically how the different markets would be divided. In addition to terminating Time Warner’s VoIP traffic and converting its packets to circuit calls, Sprint and MCI will handle provisioning phone service, deliver enhanced 911 service and support local number portability in their perspective markets.

An MCI spokesperson said this deal is the first of its kind between IXCs and MSOs. “The boundaries between the cable industry and the phone industry are rapidly disappearing,” she said.

Time Warner launched a trial of its Digital Phone Service earlier this year in Portland, Maine. That was followed up by a trial with select customers in its North Carolina markets. With the new Sprint and MCI deals in place, Time Warner officials said they will begin an aggressive rollout of services throughout its markets next year.

Time Warner is bundling the services with its broadband and cable programming services, offering flat-rate bundles of unlimited local, long distance and in-state calling.