Latest from Next TV in Voice

TWC Adds 32K Video Subs in 2015

Jeff Baumgartner — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 21:00:00 +0000

Time Warner Cable said residential sub growth for full-year 2015 was the MSO’s best ever, an achievement that comes as the operator is in the process of being acquired by Charter Communications (the FCC has paused its shot clock on that deal for 15 days).

TWC said it added a net 618,000 customer relationships during 2015, highlighted by a rarity -- the addition of 32,000 net video subs -- as well as 1 million high-speed data additions, and 1.03 million voice net adds.

"TWC’s stellar 2015 residential subscriber growth is a testament to the efforts of our entire team," Rob Marcus, chairman and CEO of TWC, said in a statement. "We’re especially pleased that we were able to add residential video customers for the first time in nine years – a real milestone for our company and the industry.

"Ordinarily we wouldn’t announce subscriber results until our earnings release, but given our results, I couldn’t wait to thank the team for its outstanding performance," he added.

TWC hasn’t announced its Q4 2015 reporting date, but the residential subscriber announcement didn’t lift the MSO’s shares on Monday, a day marked by a sell-off apparently driven by fears of an economic slowdown in China.

TWC shares were down $2.75 (1.48%) to $182.84 in late-afternoon trading Monday.

Comcast Business Brings Voice Mobility to SMBs

Jeff Baumgartner — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 15:30:00 +0000

Comcast Business is expanding its portfolio with Voice Mobility, a new type of phone line for small- and medium-sized businesses that features a mobile app that ensures that employees won't miss calls or messages when they’re on the go.

Comcast Business Voice Mobility, the MSO said, is designed for employees who need to work outside the office but need to stay connected to their business phone using a single phone number.

The new app bakes in features such as voicemail, Be Anywhere (receives calls on a mobile phone or another phone out of the office, Move Call (shift in-process calls between a mobile phone and the office phone); call transfers, mobile business contact lists, and a Do Not Disturb function that blocks incoming calls.

The debut of the app follows the biz unit’s 2013 launch of VoiceEdge, a cloud-based voice and unified communications platform.

“Comcast Business Voice Mobility provides an easy-to-use mobile app that enables our business customers to quickly check voicemails, make and receive calls, transfer calls and more,” John Guillaume, vice president of Product Management at Comcast Business, said in a statement. “Comcast delivers superior call quality to millions of small business owners over our owned and managed network, and this app extends our voice capabilities to employees on their iOS or Android mobile phones.”

In the second quarter, business services revenues at Comcast rose 20.4%, to $1.2 billion. Comcast said it has achieved a penetrate rate of 25% for small businesses, and is approaching 10% for mid-sized businesses.

Comcast recently launched new division that targets Fortune 1000 companies.

The World of WebRTC

Leslie Ellis — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 19:45:00 +0000

Here’s a way to let the imagination run wild: Think about your stuff that’s equipped with a Web browser.

Now imagine being able to talk to people using that stuff.

That’s the allure of webRTC, where the “RTC” stands for “realtime communications.” It’s a technology that grew out of the World Wide Web Consortium (which goes by “W3C”) to support browser-to-browser applications, like voice and video calling, with no need to download anything or log in. Just click to communicate.

We’ve already seen people talking into their smart watches. We’ll see many more such Dick Tracy maneuvers when Apple’s smartwatch emerges, in March. (Overheard during the recent International CES were whispered demo comments like, “I don’t think your watch heard you.”)

Also at CES, AT&T became the first U.S. carrier to announce an API (application program interface) for its webRTC plans. Why would a developer want to write code for AT&T, rather than for any garden-variety browser that can do it? Presumably to be able to call to the numbers within the public switched-telephone network (PSTN) — in other words, the traditional “black phones” connected to the original wired phone network.

Last week, Mozilla announced “Hello,” a plug-in for its Firefox browser that, once installed, enables webRTCbased calling. Also last week, Canada’s ECN Capital launched an online investment program for private markets based on webRTC.

At The Cable Show last year, Comcast showed a way to “live stream” video from wherever you are to other Xfinity customers. You’re at the wedding, but Grandma couldn’t go, so you hold up your phone and stream it to her big screen. They called it “Share.” It, too, is anchored in webRTC.

Use cases show up everywhere: You’re browsing places on Airbnb. The host happens to be home and amenable to “showing you around,” live, with video. You’re on a customercare call at your desk. You need to leave. Switch the call to your phone, tablet or watch — that’s webRTC.

As of now, there’s no straight line between webRTC and the Internet of Things — right now, the IOT is a sensor story. But the browser can’t be far behind. And when that happens, so opens a whole new way to call people, with your voice or your whole face, from any device you choose.

So far, I can’t quite imagine taking a call from the fridge. But years ago, when digital was just starting, I used to say that anything that helps people to communicate better is a winner. At the time, I used the example of being able to “talk” with my nieces about a particular live TV show — even though they live far away.

This is that. And like everything else based on IP (Internet protocol), webRTC is coming. Whether you choose to use it is up to you.

Stumped by gibberish? Visit Leslie Ellis atwww.translation-please.comormultichannel.com/blog.

TWC Adds China & Hong Kong To Free Voice Plan

Jeff Baumgartner — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 16:45:00 +0000

Time Warner Cable said it has expanded its Unlimited Home Phone calling plan by including free calls to China and Hong Kong.

With this expansion, calls to China and Hong Kong are now treated the same as long-distance calls anywhere in the U.S., as well as Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Mexico, which TWC added to the plan earlier this year.

TWC’s Unlimited Home Phone plan includes free and unlimited calling to landline and mobile numbers anytime of the day, and supports features such as Caller ID, Call Waiting, 3-Way Calling, Selective Call Acceptance, Selective Call Blocking, Selective Call Forwarding, Answer Anywhere, and Enhanced 911. Unlimited free calling is also supported by TWC’s recently-launched Phone 2 Go app.

TWC ended the third quarter of 2014 with 4.98 million residential voice subscribers.

“We are continually looking for new ways to enhance our Home Phone offering and bring the most value to our customers,” said Jeff Lindsay, General Manager for Home Phone at TWC, in a statement. “The addition of free calling to China and Hong Kong provides a meaningful benefit and ultimately, savings, to the many customers we serve who have friends and families in these countries.”