Telephony Magazine says Charter Communications has announced deals with Sprint and Level 3 to provide long-distance and local VoIP service, as well as a provisioning contract with Accenture, giving it the last key components necessary for a nationwide deployment of IP telephony.
Charter, which counts Microsoft founder Paul Allen among its major owners and investors, has spent heavily on upgrading its cable systems for broadband and digital cable systems that deliver video on demand. It counts just under one million broadband subscribers out of a total of 6.7 million cable subscribers. Charter is the nation’s third-largest cable provider. Comcast is the largest with 21.4 million subscribers and Time-Warner is second with about 12 million subscribers.
Charter said it would begin to accelerate its deployment of VoIP from its initial three markets (Madison and Wausau, Wis., and St. Louis) to its nationwide footprint. Charter s goal is to have 1 million homes passed with packet telephony by the end of the year and service available in all five of its regional divisions, though not in all 37 states it holds franchises.
“We re expediting our rollout,” a Charter spokesman said. “Our plans are much more ambitious with these agreements than they would be without them.”
Sprint will provide wholesale long-distance transport services and Level 3 will supply its Link Private Line services to interconnect Charter s facilities within markets.
Engadget’s How-To Tuesday, explains how to use Vonage Voice Over IP with a WiFi equipped Pocket PC. You can turn just about any Pocket PC into a real telephone with a working telephone number says Phillip.
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