In the midst of packing for my new apartment, I have begun to research pricing information for utilities, including cable and telephony services. My findings and number scribbles are pushing me towards signing up for standard cable plus VoIP. I chose this option in lieu of registering for cable, a land phone (including the works - voicemail, call waiting and all the possible extras I get free with VoIP)and a cell phone. Like most other residential consumers, I want to save money and find all of my telecommunication charges bundled in just one billa result of the over-hyped multiple-play deal advertisements everywhere.

It seems like cable operators wanting to offer triple and quadruple-play deals to their residential consumers will benefit from the integration on VoIP-based telephonic services, so reveals Cable Telephony Service: VoIP Finally Shows Upa study conducted by research firm In-Stat. Analysts believe that an increased use of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) by cable television operators will help boost cables presence in the telephone service market. According to the study, as more cable providers turn to VoIP over the next few years, total worldwide cable telephony subscribers will pass the 14 million mark by late 2005 and will continue to grow to well over 22 million by year-end 2008.

The use of advanced IP voice technologies is beginning to attract more cable operators to the idea of delivering voice services, says Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst. Indeed, the buzz surrounding VoIP telephony services has been constant during the past year, and virtually all leading North American cable operators are either investing resources to further explore VoIPs viability, or have actually deployed the service.

The study also reveals that as of late 2004, more than 11 million households and businesses worldwide have signed up for cable telephony service. Analysts reported that the long-anticipated "VoIP spike" in worldwide subscribers will actually be more of a steady rise, particularly during the 2005/2006 period, as VoIP technology works its way into more Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) networks. Experts believe that while there is a great deal of excitement surrounding cable-based VoIP services, the vast majority of cable telephony subscribers still rely on circuit-switched technology. According to the study, of the 11.8 million worldwide cable telephony subscribers at the end of 2004, less than 500,000 are using VoIP technology.

The report details the forecasts for worldwide cable telephony subscribers, VoIP cable telephony subscribers, and installed cable telephony lines through the year 2008, as well as the growth of Voice-over-Broadband cable telephony subscribers over the next five years. In addition, it discusses leading cable TV operators telephony strategies, profiles key industry equipment and service suppliers, and updates the availability of cable telephony services by geographic region.

In-Stat
www.in-stat.com