Cable ready to take on telephony?

After lying dormant for the past 18 months, cable telephony may be ready for a big rebound.

AT&T, in the process of acquiring Tele-Communications Inc., signed a deal with Antec Corp. and its Nortel Networks joint venture, Arris Interactive, for $50 million worth of equipment that will be used to provide voice services. In a separate announcement, Cablevision signed a multistate interconnection deal, through its Lightpath subsidiary, with Bell Atlantic.

The Antec deal is the largest ever for cable telephony equipment and initially covers 2 million homes. Antec executives believe the contract, which calls for volume shipments beginning early next year, could grow to $900 million.

"This order is icing on the cake for us," said Bob Stanzione, president and chief operating officer of Antec.

Under the deal, AT&T will use the company's Cornerstone platform to deliver lifeline voice service over TCI's existing cable plant, which passes more than 17 million homes. Though details of AT&T's plans have yet to emerge, the platform also gives it access to custom local area signaling services. "It's offered in a way that multiple phone lines in the house become the norm," said Stanzione.

The Lightpath deal covers Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Previously, Lightpath had limited its telephony rollout to selected areas of Long Island, N.Y.

According to a Cablevision spokesman, the company plans to roll out residential service in those states by early next year.