Lost language

On the cover of this issue and in the headline of the cover story by Carol Wilson on page 28, we use some technical terminology that may seem archaic to even the telecom industry's most knowledgeable historians. A “phone company,” for those of you who may not be familiar, is a company that offers voice telephone service, and it's traditionally applied to companies that offer only voice telephone service.

Now that doesn't fully describe Cox Communications, the subject of our cover story, or really any of the other telecom service providers in the U.S. that are currently offering phone service. The intention of our cover story is to highlight the progress — as evidenced by customer satisfaction surveys — that a cable TV company is making in the traditional telco business. It's a report from the battlefield on the state of telco/cable competition.

But phone service is just one small part of an ever-lengthening equation for all types of service providers. If telcos, cable TV companies and other telecom service providers make good on their promises of a variety of new services, our magazine probably will never ask you again to “meet the new phone company” or assess whether or not a given firm is on the road to becoming the best phone company in America.

Elsewhere in this issue, Joan Engebretson's story on page 24 delves into electronic numbering and the future potential applications for ENUM as the IP telephony business continues to mature.

Throughout our Forward Motion section, you'll find reports filed from two industry trade shows that were held last week. As you are reading this, our own Carol Wilson is recovering from jet lag following her very productive trip to Hong Kong to cover the ITU Telecom World show. The location, timing and audience of this major event has changed since the days when it was held every four years in Geneva, but as you see in Carol's stories on pages 8, 10 and 12, it remains of forum of hot debate for the industry's most topical technology and competitive issues. More of Carol's coverage can be found on the special event page on our Web site at www.telephonyonline.com/itu.

Last week's other industry event was TeleManagement World Americas, the Western spinoff of the larger European-based TeleManagement World organized by the TeleManagement Forum. Our TMW stories in this issue, on pages 9 and 13, highlight the major network and service management issues the industry is confronting — and conquering, if you ask BT. Further coverage of the show, including TelephonyTV video interviews and keynote footage, can be found on our Web site at www.telephonyonline.com/tmw.

And one last note on our cover story: Asking whether or not a cable TV company is capable of becoming the best phone company in America is a provocative question sure to raise the ire of some of our readership. Before you get too excited, however, you should think about the words most accurately describe the company you are a part of and what your company will be better at doing than anyone else's.