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> Broadband Gear Report's VoIP Alert for November 20, 2006

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TWC VoIP Numbers Down, But the Op's Still Up on VoIP Potentials

Some VoIP hand wringing occurred in the trade press and cable pundit blogs earlier this month after Time Warner Cable's Q3 earnings were released. That's because TWC, the big man on cable's VoIP rollout campus, reported relatively sluggish IP telephony growth -- at least compared to the last couple years' go-go expansion.

Is it a temporary hurdle that TWC can knock over soon? Or is it a ceiling that's going nowhere? Some financial analysts seemed worried, but TW remained upbeat.

During its Q3 earnings call, Time Warner execs were quick to say that the company's IP phone growth hadn't reached the edge of what the company is capable.

"We see plenty of digital phone growth ahead, particularly as we roll out the service in the acquired [Adelphia] systems," Time Warner Chairman/CEO Dick Parsons said during the call.

Achieving Deployment Goals

But what about putting your engineering dollars where your VoIP growth intentions are? TWC seems to be doing just that as at the end of October it selected SURPASS next-generation IP-based voice feature servers from Siemens Networks. Capable of multiple network configurations, the SURPASS hiQ platforms have the capacity to support as many as 150,000 subs in a single voice feature server, along with "carrier-grade reliability."

"We are currently very pleased with the rapid adoption of digital phone by our customers. These customers are seeing the value of adding digital phone to their video and high speed data bundle," Mike LaJoie, CTO for Time Warner Cable, says. "We're confident that Siemens will assist us in achieving our deployment goals as we deliver the value of our digital phone service to a growing number of customers."

Gear Watch

What's New and Who's Buying What

• Expect to see plenty of next-gen VoIP gear, not to mention other new cable technologies, at this year's CableNET exhibit at the NCTA's Cable Show in Las Vegas from May 7-9, 2007.
  
  2007 will mark the fourth year that CableNET -- which is sponsored jointly by CableLabs and NCTA -- is featured at the annual convention. Companies interested in participating in CableNET can get info at www.cablenet.org, and an RFP for participants will be issued Dec. 15.
• Tektronix announced it will buy Minacom. Minacom will be acquired in an asset purchase for approximately $27 million and Tektronix expects the transaction to close in the first part of December. Minacom's 35 employees will become part of Tektronix and the business will continue to be located in Montreal.

• The IMS Forum will host its first IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Plugfest for Applications and Services, between Jan. 15-19, 2007, at the University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Lab (IOL). Registration is open to both IMS Forum members and nonmembers. Details are available on the forum's Web site.
  
  The IMS Plugfest, the first in a series of such events, will bring together service providers and IMS vendors committed to furthering the development of IMS certification, and will provide an opportunity to establish agreed upon requirements and criteria for IMS applications and services interoperability. This testing event will enable development of an industry-recognized "stamp of approval" for IMS applications and services, expediting their rollout, according to the forum.

• RCN will deploy Cedar Point's SAFARI C³ switch for VoIP telephone services. The use of the multimedia switch is designed to compliment RCN's current VoIP offering, primarily in Chicago, and provide additional on- and off-net capabilities. During the four-month test, which was set to begin in mid November, the SAFARI C³ switch will enable RCN to offer VoIP services to residents and businesses.

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