Cable's IP voice on slow road

Despite promises from some vendors, many cable operators won’t be rolling out IP-based voice solutions to customers in any scale until at least the end of 2002.

Speaking at a panel today at Cable 2001 in Chicago, a group of cable technology executives said they generally had no concern over the ability of the technology, but were concerned about the operational issues that come with providing a voice service. At the same time, there appeared to be general agreement that the economics of providing IP voice would work in their favor.

“The technology works; I have no doubt about that,” said Majid Mir, senior vice president of telephony for Charter Communications, which is conducting IP voice trials in Wausau, Wis., and St. Louis. “The question is getting the processes in place that will allow us to deliver a service.”

Cable operators represented on the panel are taking different approaches to the IP voice market—Charter is developing its service to act as a primary line replacement while Time Warner is currently looking to IP voice as a second-line service. Comcast, meanwhile, is looking at both options, but isn’t actively pursuing any model yet.

However, most agree that IP voice will only work from an economic perspective if it is combined with existing cable-based services. Greg Hunt, vice president of operations for Time Warner Communications in Rochester, said the company’s current IP voice trial requires participants also to have RoadRunner cable modem service.

“We position this as a value-added service,” he said.

On the cost side of the equation, Mir said he wasn’t concerned about the relatively high capital costs of getting into the IP voice market.

“Capital costs ultimately amount to 30% to 35% of the total life-cycle cost,” he said. “To the extent that we can rationalize our operational cost, we can justify the higher capital costs today.”

Others, though, are sitting on the sidelines waiting for DOCSIS 1.1 products that will combine voice with other services. Comcast is looking at a number of advanced products including voice-enhanced gaming.

“It’s not enough to solve the telephony problem,” said Mark Coblitz, senior vice president of strategic planning for Comcast. “It’s about building one platform on top of another.”