IPUrbia

Peter from Rad-Info picked up an interesting article highlighting the success in Cablevision with their voice over IP services. A couple of interesting quotes:

Today, it claims 1.1 million phone customers, and continues to add them at a rapid clip. That’s impressive: Cablevision only has 3.1 million cable subscribers — far fewer than Time-Warner, with 14 million, and Comcast, with 24 million. That means one out of three Cablevision customers has added Optimum-branded VoIP. The bulk of the buyers are coming out of the hide of Verizon, the dominant local phone company in Cablevision’s service area.
…………
Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe counters that there is no mystery in Cablevisions success with VoIP. It has “been essentially giving away (VoIP) service. … So it’s a price play, pure and simple.” Rabe also says Cablevision’s VoIP service is nothing special. “The features Mr. Rutledge describes are common with voice over IP services,” he says. That includes “Voice Wing,” which is Verizon’s VoIP product. Moreover, Rabe says, Verizon can provide many of the same services on the traditional phone, as well. “What competitors don’t offer is Verizon’s unequaled 99.999% reliability and customer service,” Rabe says, alluding to the Bell’s heritage.

You have to love the progressive Verizon mentality. Verizon lost 1 million customers in its core business to a fairly small competitor offering a sideline competing service, and they fall back on their unequaled customer service. Nice.