Net2Phone, Liberty to offer VOIP service in Puerto Rico
Monday, May 24, 2004
NEW YORK, USA (Dow Jones): Internet phone
provider Net2Phone Inc. is expanding its relationship with Liberty Media Corp.
to make voice-over-Internet protocol available to 300,000 homes in Puerto Rico
starting Monday.
The service, called VoiceLinks, will be
available to all Liberty Cablevision customers in Puerto Rico this week.
Liberty, which owns a non-controlling stake
in Net2Phone, has been testing Net2Phone's technology in a trial for the past
year. Liberty Cablevision passes about 300,000 homes and serves about 120,000
customers in the eastern, central and northern regions of the island.
For Net2Phone, a Newark, N.J.-based Internet
phone provider, the expanded relationship with Liberty is the latest inroad
with cable operators. Last week, the company inked a deal with Bresnan
Communications, a small cable operator with 300,000 subscribers in Colorado,
Montana, Wyoming and Utah. Net2Phone now has deals with seven cable operators
in four countries. By this autumn, the company's services will be offered to
2.3 million homes.
While some other Internet phone providers,
notably Edison, N.J.-based Vonage, have decided to sell directly to customers,
Net2Phone has taken what is arguably a more difficult path by choosing to team
up with cable operators.
"If cable operators had their choice, they
wouldn't outsource. They prefer to build it internally and own it," said
Stephen Greenberg, Net2Phone's chief executive.
But Net2Phone is getting more interest from
cable operators as the industry races to offer the "triple play" bundle of
services - packing TV, phone and Internet all in one bill.
All major cable operators have deployed, or
are in the midst of deploying, Internet phone service. Satellite operators
have formed partnerships with local phone companies to offer bundled services.
And even long-distance giant AT&T Corp. (T), seeing opportunity in
voice-over-IP technology, launched a separate Internet phone service,
CallVantage, in March.
For smaller cable companies, which have less
resources on hand, teaming with a company such as Net2Phone is a way to offer
voice-over-IP services quickly.
Greenberg said Net2Phone has had an easier
time approaching cable operators in Europe, where competition from satellite
TV broadcasters and phone companies is stiffer. Net2Phone may have
underestimated its opportunity in Europe, he said.
In November, the company estimated it would
have exposure to 8.2 million customers in five years. With 2.3 million under
its belt, "we're ahead of where we thought we'd be," he said.
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