Comcast

Keynote: VoIP audio "merely tolerable"

Doug Mohney — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:58:54 -0500

Releasing its sixth study on VoIP service providers in three years, Keynote Competitive Research (KCR) says audio quality hasn't improved since the last go-round in April 2007. Reliability, however, is improving.

KCR, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems, measured a mix of nine voice services -- landline service provider AT&T; VoIP providers AT&T CallVantage, Lingo, Packet8, EarthLink, trueVoice, Verizon's VoiceWing and Vonage; and cable Comcast Digital Voice and Time Warner Digital Phone services.

Findings of the study indicate that digital providers are outpacing the competition with audio quality, an interesting finding where VoIP audio is deemed as "merely tolerable" and a shift from the previous study where landline providers prevailed. In the published rankings, Comcast Digital Voice scored 901 performance points, followed by Verizon's VoiceWing service at 609 points and AT&T's land line service at 506 points.

Only one of the VoIP providers in the study failed to provide dial done 99.9 percent of the time or better and there's also one VoIP provider out there that requires two seconds more to set up a call than anyone else.

Eight out of the nine providers have improved their call completion rates since the previous study.

For reliability, AT&T landline line service ranks at number 1 with 996 points, but Time Warner Digital Phone pulled 926 points, followed by Verizon's VoiceWing service at 872 points.

For more:
- Visit Keynote's website for the press release.

VoIP and the FCC Comcast Ruling

Doug Mohney — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:38:01 -0400

It's OK to give VoIP traffic priority over other Internet traffic, says the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). But, how do you tell if it is VoIP traffic in the first place?

CircleID parses through the FCC order issued to Comcast, abet with some brightly colored commentary. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says it would be OK for networks to prioritize VoIP traffic. But the FCC's own press release says network applications should be treated equally, rather than "discriminate" among applications.

A further mystery arises when it comes to figuring out what packets should get priority over others--assuming, of course, that you can do so. The FCC's press release quotes Professor David Reed of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as saying that deep packet inspection (DPI) is not "acceptable behavior." It does beg the question of what you need to do to figure out what's in a packet in the first place in order to give it priority.

For more:
- Read the CircleID piece parsing the FCC Comcast ruling

Related articles:
Comcast, Vonage reach traffic management understanding
FCC targets transparency for network management

SPOTLIGHT: VoIP 1Q08 Subscriber Numbers

Doug Mohney — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:33:32 -0400

ISP-Planet has compiled the top 10 VoIP subscriber numbers in the United States by companies reporting their first quarter 2008 numbers.

Comcast is on top with 5.2 million subscribers, followed by Time Warner with 3.2 million subs and Vonage in third with 2.6 million subscribers. Cox (2.5M) and CableVision (1.7) million round out the top five. Add them up and the top 10 providers serve nearly 18 million customers in the U.S., and that's not even throwing in Covad (Went private, not announcing numbers), AT&T, Packet8, and a number of other players.

For more:
- ISP-Planet.com Top 10 VoIP providers

Related articles:
IP Telephony Sales Down, VoIP VARs Still Up
Twenty percent annual growth for VoIP

Cable Raids Independent VoIP Companies, Telcos

Doug Mohney — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:41:40 -0400

The flurry of news over Vonage getting a new CEO and new financing to stave off a potential bankruptcy doesn't overshadow the fact cable companies are cleaning up in the VoIP arena.

DSLreports notes that subscriber growth over the past year ending in the first quarter of 2008 has been less than 200,000 for independent VoIP providers; that's less than one-fifth of the new subs from the previous year. Compare that to cable companies 5.5 million subs picked up in the last year; Time Warner added 285,000 phone subs in 1Q08 alone, and it trailed Comcast's 711,000 subs in the same time period.

Cable companies are also picking up plenty of subs from traditional phone companies, as they leverage their triple-play offerings to snap up voice services from consumers. Cable's growth is in part leading AT&T, Verizon, Qwest and Embarq to a collective loss of 2.6 million landline customers per quarter (along with a good helping from wireless services).

For more:
- DSLreports discusses how cable companies are beating independent VoIP providers

Related articles:
SPOTLIGHT: Mobile and VoIP Doom Wireline in Oz
VoIP, Cellular bite U.S. fixed-lines hard

Comcast-Vonage Deal Generates Critics

Doug Mohney — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:59:51 -0400

Some days you can't win. Comcast's announcement of an agreement with Vonage to address "reasonable network management" of VoIP is raising eyebrows and criticism.

Wednesday's announcement of the two companies working together has called into question Comcast's network management practices, says Information Week. Free Press, a non-profit organization working to reform the media, is wondering why Vonage needs to cut a deal with Comcast to guarantee that its services are not degraded or blocked. The organization wants to know if Comcast has degraded Vonage services in the past and if they continue to degrade other services from competitors.

Comcast says they've only affected peer-to-peer applications, a stance which has the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) not happy and prepared to issue an order for the cable company to stop blocking any applications, disclose its network management practices, and submit a timetable on when and how the cable operator aims to comply with the order.

Needless to say if the order comes to pass, Comcast is likely to go to court on the matter. Or the company may simply stall for time and see what a new administration might bring to Washington.

For more:
- Vonage working with Comcast release
- Information Week opines on Vonage Comcast deal

Related articles:
No Comcast 'do-over,' says Martin
Comcast reports 'Comcastic' quarter

Keynote Kicks VoIP Reliability and Clarity

Doug Mohney — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:17:36 -0400

Keynote Systems has released its latest VoIP testing report comparing VoIP and PacketCable services against wireline providers. The study finds "tolerable" audio delays on the alternative services.

All the service providers (AT&T CallVantage, EarthLink trueVoice, Lingo, Packet8, Verizon VoiceWing, Vonage, and Vonics Digital on the VoIP side; Time Warner Digital Phone and Comcast Digital Voice with PacketCable) were compared to AT&T's local wireline service from calls made from residential locations in New York and San Francisco.

Results indicate consumers are more likely to experience "merely tolerable" rather than completely satisfactory audio delays on VoIP calls. One VoIP provider had no calls with MOS scores of 4.0 or better; one experienced audio delays of more than 150 ms for every call placed--a serious no-no for call quality since 150 ms is the threshold for good calls and one VoIP provider required six seconds more than other VoIP providers to connect calls after dialing. In addition, there were large quality gaps between VoIP providers on unmanaged networks and other service providers.

For more:
- Read Keynote's VoIP Telephony Quality release

Related articles:
Keynote's VoIP Quality Report Circa 2006
VoIP quality on the upswing in 2007

The ultimate E911 compliance test: Dial

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:59:56 -0400

One of the ongoing concerns with VoIP has been the ability of service providers to effectively deliver a 911 call to the appropriate authorities. In an ideal world a VoIP-transported 911 call should go directly to the closest public safety access point (PSAP) and display both the phone number you are using as well as the location of the phone.

Public safety officials in Lee County, Fla. have come up with a quick and easy way for VoIP subscribers to verify their 911 service should work as defined: Call them. Specifically, Lee County Public Safety is asking people with VoIP service to set up an appointment to test their service to see if 911 works as advertised. Users have to call the County 911 program manager on his (non-911) phone line to schedule a time for a trial call, then call 911 at the specified time to verify both caller ID information and address associated with the phone number.

Testing has been going on for a few weeks, but so far only a few test calls a day have taken place. Officials would prefer "thousands" of test calls, since anywhere from 2 percent to 20 percent of VoIP services may either not have 911 functioning correctly or may have the wrong address with the registered phone number. Neither Vonage nor Comcast will tell officials how many customers they have; public safety officials estimate the two providers have 3,000 or more subscribers in Lee County.

For more:
- Lee County News-press Com 911 Testing article

Related articles:
e911 bill provides VoIP liability protection
House gives nod to VoIP E911
FCC clarifies e911 accuracy requirements

Enterprise VoIP in 2008 an uphill battle

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

VoIP News notes the impact of VoIP technology for reducing operating costs and long distance charges, but there's a long way to go before there's a majority of businesses that are all IP. Infonetics Research puts adoption rates in 2005 at 36 percent of large, 23 percent of medium and 14 percent of small North American businesses. By 2010, Infonetics predicts almost half of small companies and two-thirds of large organizations in North America will be using VoIP products and services.

So what's the hold up? Businesses are reluctant to get rid of their legacy handsets for more costly IP-equipped ones, even though they buy into the idea of the value to migrate to an IP telephony system. Most enterprises choosing to migrate are doing so because they can keep their existing (legacy) investment, operating in a hybrid mode.

There is also confusion about what VoIP is really able to offer while fuzzy catch phrases such as unified communications only generate more skepticism. Apparently, businesses need to be convinced of the competitive advantages of VoIP-based technologies so they'll let go of their still-working legacy gear.

For more:
- VoIP News State of Enterprise VoIP in 2008 piece

Nortel, Arcor integrate mobile phones into corporate networks

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:59:54 -0400

German telecom Arcor is teaming up with Nortel to provide a mobile enterprise VoIP offering that allows workers to connect with their corporate network using mobile phones. Arcor demonstrated the new Central Phone mobility functionalities at the CeBIT 2008 trade fair in Hanover, Germany. The new functionalities are expected to be available to Arcor clients before the end of this year.

"Arcor selected Nortel for its technology expertise in both the wireline and the wireless area and for its ability to design and implement a fixed mobile convergence solution. Thanks to this expertise, Arcor will soon be able to offer customers enhanced hosted VoIP business services through Central Phone that allow them to enhance their productivity through effortless, seamless calling across multiple types of phones," says Walter Vorderhuber, head of Product Management VAS, Arcor. "Now that both fixed-line calls and mobile calls are managed by the same network, we can provide our customers with simple and affordable services that are more flexible than ever before."

For more on the deal:
- Read the release

Related articles:
Mobile Enterprise VoIP: Has its time finally come?
Comcast launches triple-play aimed at business

Comcast launches triple play aimed at businesses

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:59:58 -0400

Comcast's launch last week of a voice service aimed at small to mid-sized businesses in New England is the latest in a series of cable forays into VoIP that could mean this is the year the big guys really set their sights on the $55 billion U.S. market. Comcast's triple-play packages start at $99 and include calling features like auto attendant, call forwarding, call tracing, three-way calling and more.

The Internet offering includes download speeds up to 16MB/s and software packages including web-based Internet applications from Microsoft. Those applications include corporate class email, document sharing through Sharepoint and security and data protection from McAfee. Comcast says it will continue to roll out the new business service across its markets in the coming months.

Industry analysts said cable sees small business as a soft spot for the telcos, which have been losing residential landline subscribers at an alarming rate. The key? Cost.

"Pricing in the (small to medium enterprise]) segment is typically very high, leaving the door open to a telco alternative," Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a report on the commercial telecom services sector last week.

For more:
- Read Comcast's release
- And the story, "Operators don business attire" in Multichannel News

Related articles:
Big cable vs. big telcos Report
Comcast has big ideas for business

Are Telcos getting to a VoIP tipping point?

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 07:59:56 -0400

Is SureWest's announcement it is moving into residential VoIP the tipping point for telco's to finally seriously embrace VoIP? SureWest is an independent Californian telco with about 115,000 access lines and has been losing access business at a rate of about seven per cent. This is consistent with industry metrics, but at the same time SureWest has been aggressively building its double and triple-play broadband business. SureWest offers 50 HD channels down its fiber network and according to Gary Kim SureWest has about 100,000 broadband revenue generating subscribers or units and that business is growing at 13 percent. On current trends that probably means its broadband business will exceed its telephone business in terms of number of units some time this year.

However, as Kim notes in an article for TMC, the actual switch-over point will be driven by revenue issues, rather than customer base. Also relevant will be at what point it will make economic sense to simply turn off the legacy system and rely on its IP network. All the network pieces for that to happen are not here yet, but the day is coming.

As the margins for voice telephony continue to collapse and as cable VoIP and the Vonages and Skypes of the world eat away at the fringe, SureWest and all the other carriers have to make a big call about migrating their base before that base disappears on them. And once the move is on by one carrier will that prompt a stampede as telco's rush to grab market share?

For more:
- SureWest launches residential VoIP Release
- When Will Telcos Deploy VoIP? Article

Related articles:
SureWest launches VoIP Article
Comcast takes aim at business Article

Comcast takes aim at business

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:59:57 -0400

Having emerged as the U.S. industry leader for consumer VoIP, Comcast is now taking aim at business with a basket of offerings including its digital voice service. The service will be pitched at small- to medium-sized businesses as an alternative to the business service packages now being promoted by both Verizon and AT&T.

The voice service has proved to be very popular with households, with more than four million subscribers cutting their traditional phone line to take up the service. Married with Comcast's impressively fast Internet service, it is more than a match for the many service providers out there offering a DSL broadband and VoIP service. But while Comcast has shown it can match the telcos in the residential space, it will need to prove the reliability of its service for business. Comcast shares its bandwidth and having your Internet connection slow to a crawl when the kids come home from school, and fire up their on-line gaming, is not going to work for business. Nor will businesses put up with a voice service that regularly drops out, which has been this writer's experience--until the sixth technician visit finally fixed the problem.

For many SMB's the debate over VoIP is well over, and many are now contemplating what unified communications strategy to take up from the slew of vendors offering highly competitive packages.

For more:
-Comcast has an idea for business Article

Related articles:
Verizon business offers video conferencing Article
Companies such as Verizon and IBM are in pursuit of unified communications

Qwest upgrades Enterprise VoIP service

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:59:56 -0400

Carriers are not standing still as the Comcasts of the world push into their enterprise space, with Qwest the latest telco to upgrade its enterprise VoIP offering. The upgrade to its OneFlex product includes significant improvements to bandwidth management to enable more data and voice calls into existing bandwidth. Qwest is also introducing sub-office portals to enable businesses to delegate the management of the phone system among work groups, rather than having a central person having to manage the whole service. Coupled with the sub-portal is an escape to operator service which allows callers to dial "0" for assistance.

The enhancements however still look rudimentary against the feature sets now being rolled out by specialist operators such as Fonality and the big vendor offerings. Siemens Communications last week released its fully integrated unified communications server platform in the biggest UC announcement of the year. It has certainly set a high bar for all other players. The software-based platform known as OpenScape integrates voice, video and data and is being offered as both an installed and hosted service.

For more:
- Qwest makes VoIP upgrade Release
- Siemens challenge Microsoft OCS Podcast

Related articles:
Siemens releases new UC platform Article
Cisco vs. Microsoft in unified comms Article
Fonality launches Boomerang follow-me service Article

FCC targets transparency for network management

Tom Burton — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:59:54 -0400

The FCC's Kevin Martin has given his strongest indication the commission will establish guidelines for consumer disclosure as its remedy for providers who actively managed their networks. In so doing he seems to have rejected calls by the net neutrality lobby to bar ISPs from intervening in their networks.

Speaking to a Stanford law seminar Martin said: "One of the most important and one of the most troubling aspects of the complaints in front of us is that at first the network operator (Comcast) denied that they were engaged in this kind of a practice publicly. The challenge is to find a balance to where the Commission should act," said Martin. "It shouldn't be inherently partisan," he added in reference to what he called extremist views in both the Republican (no regulation) and Democratic (excessive regulation) camps.

Martin said the Comcast case was "an opportunity to demonstrate we will enforce (reasonable access) principles and allow innovation to occur. I have testified that I'm ready, willing and able to act, and I think that's what we're doing."

He said in 2005, the FCC endorsed four basic rights of Internet end users: end users have the right to access content; run applications and services; connect devices to the network; and to expect competition among network, application, service and content providers.

"The FCC hasn't said whether (ISPs) can have a fast lane versus a slow lane," said Martin. "The Commission hasn't spoken to that. To the extent you are asserting network management as a defense against the four principles, all the applications have to be treated the same, or it's truly not about network management but about arbitrary blocking."

Comcast has strongly defended its right to manage its network to avoid congestion so as to ensure VoIP and other advanced IP services are not impaired by P2P networks. In some European countries it has been estimated five per cent of users are using Bit Torrent applications to consume 80 percent of the bandwidth.

For more:
FCC looking for balance in Comcast network hearing Article
Martin troubled by Comcast Article

Related articles:
Comcast defends network management Article
NBC to use P2P to deliver video Report
EU invests $22 billion into P2P Article

No Comcast 'do-over,' says Martin

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:59:55 -0500

There will be no "do-over" of the infamous Harvard network-throttling meeting during his trip to Palo Alto to speak at a Stanford law school conference, FCC Kevin Martin has told reporters. Nor was Martin proposing to investigate Comcast's hiring of seat warmers ahead of the Harvard meeting. "It's usually more interesting for people to attend on their own without being paid to do so, but we're not investigating anything," Martin said.

Comcast admitted to hiring people to take up seats at last week's Harvard hearing because it feared the audience was going to be stacked with Comcast protesters. Some of the seats were then filled by local Comcast employees. Some of the remaining seat warmers were then caught sleeping at the standing-room-only hearing.

Martin said the FCC learned from the hearing and remained open to another hearing. The hearing is considering a complaint from P2P operator Vuze that Comcast blocked their traffic. Comcast has admitted blocking P2P traffic to avoid congestion. The hearing is considered critical to the net neutrality issue and the right of service providers to manage their networks.

The FCC is expected to push for greater transparency by providers but not ban throttling for bona fide network management.

For more:
- No Stanford hearing, says Martin Article

Related articles:
Trial of the Internet Article
Comcast hires seat warmers Article

ALSO NOTED: What are Skype's real numbers?; Comcast chases SMBs; and much more...

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:59:52 -0500

> What are Skype's real numbers? Blog

> Comcast aims for SMBs Article

Q4 Consumer VoIP league table

Tom Burton — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:59:55 -0500

We have reported on the surging growth of cable in the consumer VoIP market at the expense of the pure-play operators such as Vonage and to a lesser extent Skype. Ike Elliott has pulled together the Q4 revenue numbers that reflect a similar story, with Comcast leading the pack for subscribers, revenue and average revenue. The two top cable voice providers, Comcast and Time Warner have almost 60 percent of the U.S. marketplace measured by revenue. In terms of actual subscribers, these two companies have more than half the consumer VoIP market. Vonage has a touch less than 20 percent subscriber share.

Measuring Skype's real user base is always problematic and, in this case, Elliott took an estimate based on typical average revenues of the other operators to create a like-for-like proxy comparison. On that basis, Elliott marks Skype as the fifth-biggest player (although it is not clear if this is based on Skype's global or U.S. numbers).

Most interesting were the ARPU numbers. Average monthly revenue per user for Comcast was $39.83, Time Warner $38.62, Charter $37.18, Cablevision $30.78 with Vonage railing with average revenues of $27.90. That is a big gap between the market leader and the market laggard.

For more:
- Telecosm Q4 VoIP league table Blog

Related articles:
Big Cable vs. Big Telco Article
FCC levies fees on cable Article

ALSO NOTED: Comcast stacks FCC hearing; New wide-area VoIP handset; and much more...

Tom Burton — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:59:52 -0500

> Comcast stacks FCC meeting Article

> Cambridge Consultants Developing Wide-Area Wireless VoIP Handset For xG Technology Inc. Article

> Verso Selected by Tier One North American Carrier for Global VoIP Rollout Article

Trial of the Internet begins today

Tom Burton — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:59:56 -0500

Comcast should have disclosed it was interfering with it ISP traffic FCC Chair Kevin Martin has declared ahead of today's critical FCC Harvard forum on traffic management. The forum is a public meeting to discuss the issue of ISP traffic management. It will feature several of the main players with a stake in the ISP world, including senior representatives from Comcast and Verizon. U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who earlier this month introduced an "Internet Freedom Preservation Act" bill, also will speak.

"One of the concerns I have is that (Comcast) did not disclose it beforehand," Martin said in today's Boston Herald. "If they have certain bandwidth concerns, they should disclose it upfront." Martin has been pursuing Comcast over its practices, and last year unsuccessfully sought to regulate the cable company, the largest in the U.S., to reduce its market power and to promote competition. Comcast has forcefully submitted it needs to prioritize traffic so as to best ensure traffic quality for the majority. It has admitted to interfering with P2P streams when local nodes become congested and has subsequently changed its terms to indicate it may manage traffic flows if required.

The FCC is investigating after complaints from P2P operator Vuze. Columbia University's Professor Timothy Wu has described the hearing as "the trial of the Internet." Wu coined the term net neutrality and is attending today's hearing.

The issue of traffic management is critical to cable's ability to offer triple-play solutions. Cable users share band width, so an FCC ruling banning traffic management would make it impossible for cable operators to ensure the necessary quality of service for viable voice and video services.

Cable enjoys 73 percent market share of the U.S. residential VoIP market. The telco ISPs operate DSL systems and do not share bandwidth so are not as threatened by the dramatic surge in traffic coming from video and P2P networks. P2P networks suck up any spare bandwidth across a network. A European study found five percent of users take up 80 percent of Internet traffic.

For more:
- FCC chief blasts Comcast Article
- Comcast hearing stakes are high Article

Related articles:
Comcast defends traffic management Report
Net Neutrality bill restarted Report

Big four VoIP players win 12 million users

Tom Burton — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:59:58 -0500

The big four U.S. VoIP providers now have 12 million phone customers after Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Vonage last week all released new subscriber numbers. Time Warner announced its three millionth digital voice phone customer. This was followed by a statement from privately held Cox Communications that it now has 2.4 million digital voice customers. Last month Comcast revealed it had four million voice subscribers. The other major VoIP player, Vonage, also announced last week it had 2.6 million customers.

Three cable companies now account for nearly 10 million phone subscribers. Telcos Verizon, AT&T, Embarq and Qwest recorded total access line losses of 10 million in 2007. To stem the loss, Verizon and AT&T have aggressively moved into the video market, once the domain of the cable companies.

Time Warner Cable is now the seventh-biggest provider of telephony in the U.S. and Comcast boasts it is the fourth-largest provider of residential telephony. In 2007, Cox added 357,000 residential voice customers and is now only slightly behind Vonage in number of VoIP subscribers. Cox also increased its business phones by nearly 30 percent and has more than 500,000 non-video customers.

For more:
- Time Warner Cable signs up three millionth phone customer Release
- Cox Communications releases new numbers Release

Related articles:
Vonage has 2.6 million customers Report
Comcast claims to be a telco major Report