The cable industry has spent more than $100 billion since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to create the most extensive and robust broadband network found in America. This robust technology platform now passes more than 117 million households with high-speed Internet Service, serves 65 million households with video services, and provides telephone service to 15 million customers.

Digital Phone

Consumers now have access to more competition than ever thanks to cable. Digital telephone service provides consumers with a true alternative to standard telephone service. While some cable operators have offered traditional circuit-switched telephone service for years, most are now offering digital phone service. This service often comes as part of a “bundle” where multichannel video, high-speed Internet and voice services are offered as a package and billed in a single invoice, providing a better value and more simplicity for customers.Through the use of software, digital phone service provides all the functionality of the public switched telephone network (PSTN), while making possible new features not available through traditional telephone service, such as Web portals that allows customers to review their calling history or listen to voicemail messages online when away from home. Digital phone service is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to completely change how phone calls are made and how voice services are used.

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There are many ways that the cable industry has expanded consumer choice. You don’t have to be that old to remember a time when you had maybe a half-dozen TV viewing choices – maybe a few more, maybe less – and now you probably have hundreds. Not that long ago, it was the same situation with the telephone.

A couple years ago, NCTA created a video to explain cable’s impact on America. Take a look and skip ahead about two minutes in. That image of the phone industry as stodgy is amusing because it was so true. Rotary dials, touch-tone, mobile phones – the pace of these innovations was pretty slow.

But today, consumers are finally enjoying true facilities based competition in local phone service. Cable’s service is reliable plus it offers many of the standard features for a great price. Generally, you get unlimited calls anywhere in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. You get to keep your current home phones, wall jacks and phone number. Many operators include services like Call Waiting, Caller ID, Call Forwarding, Speed Dial, and so on. But you also see features like digital voicemail that can be accessed over the Internet from any location, and new features like Caller ID on the TV are beginning to be introduced in some communities.

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More than 15 million Americans have switched to cable’s digital voice service. One big reason that consumers are switching is the significant savings that can be found, especially if the service is included as part of a bundle that includes video and high-speed Internet.

In fact, in the past four years, consumers that have switched to cable phone service have already saved $23 billion. Evidence of that can be found in a study by Microeconomic Consulting & Research Associates, Inc. (MiCRA). The report, “Consumer Benefits from Cable-Telco Competition,” was first prepared in 2006 and then updated in November of 2007.

According to MiCRA, consumers and small businesses across the country have already saved $23.5 billion and may save a total of $111 billion on their phone bills over the next five years as a result of robust competition. MiCRA estimates that residential consumers could save an average of $144 or more each year, while small businesses could save 50-70% on their phone bills – although the projections conservatively assumed that small businesses would save about $240 each year.

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In 2007, J.D. Power and Associates’ annual rankings of telephone service provider customer satisfaction ranked cable companies #1 in customer satisfaction in all six US regions. More than 15 million customers currently enjoy cable’s phone service, and it’s no wonder cable companies are signing up millions of new customers every year.

Cable’s telephone service often comes as part of a “bundle” where multichannel video, high-speed Internet and voice services are offered as a package and billed in a single invoice, providing a better value and more simplicity for customers.

Cable’s digital phone service makes possible new features not available through traditional telephone service – such as Web portals that allows customers to review their calling history or listen to voicemail messages online when away from home. Digital phone service is a revolutionary technology that has the potential to completely change how phone calls are made and how voice services are used.

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It’s worth noting that cable’s phone business has grown in a fairly short period of time. The current competitive age can be traced back to the passage of the deregulatory 1996 Telecommunications Act. Following that, the cable industry invested more than $100 billion in private capital to upgrade its network infrastructure in order to provide broadband services.

But even before today’s IP-based phone service, some operators took the plunge into phone. Back in September of 1997, Cox Communications launched circuit-switched phone service in Orange County, California. Comcast (via its acquisition of AT&T Broadband) also has a base of circuit-switched customers that were generated following the acquisitions by AT&T of TCI and MediaOne in 1999.

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