CALGARY, AB (MARKET WIRE) Cybersurf Corp. (Cybersurf) (TSX-V: CY), one of Canada’s leading Internet services and technology companies, announced today it has entered into an agreement with eForce, a consumer services company reselling long distance services.

Cybersurf will be licensing its Internet connectivity software as well as wholesaling dial and DSL services for resale to eForce long distance customers through it’s affiliate white-labeled program.

«Cybersurf sees great potential in its licensing and whole-sale capabilities in the Canadian market,» says Paul Mercia, President and CEO of Cybersurf. «eForce is a perfect candidate for white-labeling with Cybersurf in this capacity,» continues Paul Mercia. «With their substantial long distance subscriber base we believe they will match the success Cybersurf has experienced in bundling long distance and Internet services together.»

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By Kathryn Balint
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Time Warner Cable has begun offering telephone service to some of its cable TV and high-speed Internet customers, becoming the second major cable company in San Diego County to compete against SBC Communications.

The move fuels the fierce battle for customers among the giants of the telephone and the cable industries, particularly in the county. As traditional telephone companies such as SBC have begun offering satellite TV service, the cable companies have launched telephone service.

«Here is more evidence of a thriving, competitive, intense environment in telecommunications in San Diego,» SBC spokesman John Britton said. «We think choice is a positive thing for customers when companies are investing for the good of our state.»

Time Warner quietly began offering telephone service to its customers in Mira Mesa and Tierrasanta earlier this month. It plans to expand soon into Scripps Ranch and Clairemont.

The service costs $19.95 a month for the first three months and $39.95 a month after that for residential customers who already subscribe to Time Warner’s cable TV and high-speed Internet service. The monthly cost is $44.95 for customers who subscribe to only one of Time Warner’s other services.

Time Warner’s «digital phone» service offers unlimited local and long-distance calls to anywhere in the United States and its territories. The service also includes call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID and an unpublished number at no extra charge. There is no installation fee.

Unlike traditional circuit-switched phone service, Time Warner’s digital telephone service uses voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technology, transmitting voice in much the same way that e-mails are sent. But instead of using the public Internet to transmit calls, Time Warner uses its own network, making its voice data more secure and more reliable.

Time Warner’s partner, MCI, connects digital phone subscribers to the publicly switched telephone network.

«We have gotten incredibly good response, but it’s been a very limited offering of the service,» said Judy Walsh, president and chief executive of Time Warner’s San Diego division.

«Now our customers in San Diego with digital phone can enjoy all these free standard calling features as part of their phone package. They can spend all the time they want talking to friends and family across the country, and they don’t have to worry about the cost,» Walsh said.

The service is still in the «test mode,» she said. Customers are asked to give Time Warner feedback on the quality of the service.

Once all of the bugs are worked out, digital phone will gets its official San Diego County launch, probably by the end of the year, Walsh said. It will take until the middle of next year before Time Warner can offer service to all of its customers in the county, she said.

In the meantime, Time Warner has started a list of customers interested in subscribing to its new phone service when it becomes available. Additional information is as the company’s Web site, www.twcsd.com.

Time Warner provides cable television and high-speed Internet services to more than 200,000 customers, primarily in the northern areas of the city of San Diego, Coronado and part of Poway.

Cox Communications, the other major cable company in San Diego County, began offering telephone service in 1998. It has a calling plan similar to Time Warner’s, offering unlimited long-distance calls in the United States, starting at $38.89 a month.

SBC’s equivalent calling plan costs $42 a month.

The cable and the traditional phone companies offer «bundled» services at a discount to keep their customers from straying. When a customer buys a package with TV, phone service and high-speed Internet access, it’s called a «triple play» in the industry.

«There’s no doubt the bundle has become the choice of consumers because they get the convenience of one bill and dealing with one company,» SBC’s Britton said. «You get value, no matter which company you’re dealing with.»

Time Warner began exploring circuit-switched telephone service in 1993 in Rochester, N. Y. The company later decided to offer VOIP service, starting in 2000 with trials in Rochester and Portland, Maine.

Time Warner officially launched its digital phone service in February 2003 in Portland, Maine. Since then, it has been rolled out in about 20 of its 30 markets nationwide.

The company plans to provide telephone service in all of its markets by the end of this year, Walsh said.

Consumer Choice to Disappear

SAN FRANCISCO, Today, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a proposal that will increase wholesale rates for SBC’s California service territory by 20 percent. Competitive carriers rely on these wholesale rates in order to lease access to the public switched network and provide local phone service to consumers and small businesses.

This increase would be in addition to a 15 percent hike proposed by the FCC that will take effect early next year.

The following may be attributed to Ken McNeely, President, AT&T California:

«Today’s vote is an inexplicable about-face from the pro-competitive actions taken by this Commission just two-and-a-half years ago that spurred investment in the state, provided Californians with new choices for local phone service, and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in savings.

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By Michelle Ramella
September 22, 2004

«I promise I’ll call you everyday whenever I have the time,» I say to my boyfriend. «Don’t forget about me.» I walk away from him for what will be the first time that we will be more then a 15-minute drive from each other. Secretly though, as I walk away I think about all the fun that he will be having without me, the things he could be doing with his friends and then about how I’ll never know. Words that my guy friends have told me run through my head only to bounce around and never really leave. «He’ll cheat on you the first chance he’ll get,» or «He has needs too, you know.» I refuse to believe them that my boyfriend of 12 months will cheat on me or even really think about it.

I could just be stupid, but he wouldn’t cheat on me, after all he loves me, right?
Going away to school puts a tough strain on our relationship. It makes having time for each other to having no time at all. Before it was just the fact that he has two jobs and school to worry about, while all I had was school, a job and my social life. I’m not saying he didn’t have a social life too, but it’s so much harder to have one with so many other things going on. It was hard enough for him to make enough time for me, but now, with me a little over an hour away, his life just got that much harder. He’s always telling me how he wishes there were more hours in the day so he could fit everything in that he needed to get done.

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Agreement Provides Cablevision Optimum Voice(R) Customers With Access To Low Cost International Direct-Dial Calling From Home and Away

IDT Telecom today announced that it has signed an agreement to provide international long distance phone service to Cablevision Systems Corporation’s Optimum Voice digital voice-over-cable customers. The new service also includes a remote calling feature that allows customers to make international calls from any location in the U.S., Puerto Rico or U. S. Virgin Islands. IDT Telecom is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT, IDT.C), an international telecom, entertainment and technology company.

Cablevision’s Optimum Voice became available across the company’s footprint of nearly 4.4 million homes in the New York metropolitan area late last year, and the company had 115,000 customers as of June 30, adding 3,400 customers on average each week during the second quarter.

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