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.
More Video Choices
Cable’s digital video services generally include hundreds of channels, high definition TV (HDTV), Video-on-Demand (VOD), Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), Interactive Program Guides (IPGs), Enhanced TV services (ETV, including web access), and commercial free, CD-quality music channels. Cable companies are aggressively deploying HDTV nationwide. By March 2007, 100 million U.S. television households were passed by at least one cable system offering HDTV service, which represents all of the top 100 designated market areas (DMAs). Of all DMAs, a total of 209 markets (out of 210) were served by at least one cable system that offers high-definition programming. Local cable systems also were carrying the digital signal of 999 unique broadcast stations in March 2007, nine-and-a-half times the amount in January 2003, when 92 such stations were carried, and national cable program networks currently offer 66 channels in high definition.
Lightning Fast Internet
Cable’s hybrid fiber-coaxial infrastructure provides 35.6 million cable modem customers with high-speed access to the Internet. With downloads speeds reaching up to 50 Mbps, cable’s broadband can’t be touched by the telco’s DSL offering and other services from the phone companies are only available in very limited areas. The cable industry also has developed standards to make interoperable, nonproprietary cable modems available through retail stores.
Competition Works. Consumers Win.
Competition has provided consumers with more choice, and more savings. Cable competes every day for voice, video and broadband customers. We take the competitive marketplace seriously which explains why we have the most video customers, the most broadband customers, are adding millions of voice customers every year, and in 2007 lead the J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction rankings for telephone services in all six US regions.
Because cable competes, you win.
