BY JOHN MORAN
THE HARTFORD COURANT

Own a telephone, someone once said, and you give 6 billion people the right to wake you up in the middle of the night. Fortunately, most can’t be bothered.

But even that possibility highlights what a stupid and unruly brute the traditional telephone is. Someone calls, the phone rings, and you are bound to answer it — or at least be interrupted by it.

Internet telephone service — otherwise known as voice over Internet protocol, or more simply VOIP — promises to change all that, offering consumers sweeping and sophisticated control over how the phone works at an affordable price.

Consider, for example, the VOIP service from BroadVoice, a subsidiary of Convergent Networks. For as little as $9.99 a month, it offers unlimited in-state calling and long-distance service at 3.9 cents a minute — not bad for people who make most of their calls locally.

Of course, to use BroadVoice, you must supply your own high-speed Internet connection — typically either a DSL or cable Internet hookup. Still, if you spend a lot each month on long-distance calling, the savings could be considerable.

But beyond the savings, a slew of call-management features makes using BroadVoice’s VOIP service a liberating, if somewhat complicated, experience.

First you get a raft of «basic» call features, which actually seem pretty sophisticated. These include call-forwarding, call-waiting, three-way calling, last-number redial, call hold, anonymous-call rejection and more.

My favorite is the Do-Not-Disturb feature, which lets you effectively take the phone «off the hook» when you don’t want to be bothered. Incoming calls are either sent directly to voice mail or get a busy signal.

Then there are more advanced features, like those on advanced cell phones. One lets you assign a distinctive ring to calls originating from certain numbers, so you can separate special callers, such as spouse and boss, from others.

Similarly, you can arrange to have certain callers forwarded while others are sent to voice mail.

In all, BroadVoice offers 22 basic and advanced call management features. If those aren’t enough, another handful of premium features, such as customized hold music and alternative phone numbers, are available for an extra fee.

None of this would be worth much if VOIP call quality were poor. But calls placed via the BroadVoice service were almost always as good as conventional phone service — and much better than most cell phone calls.

VOIP remains a fraction of the overall telephone universe at present. But once consumers get clued into the pricing and the features available, that could change quickly.

The Hartford Courant is a Tribune Co. newspaper.

Full-Featured Flat-Rate Calling Comes to the Capital of the Hawkeye State

EDISON, N.J., /PRNewswire/ Vonage Holdings Corp., the leading provider of broadband phone service, today announced local availability of its service in Des Moines, Iowa.

High-speed Internet subscribers nestled along the Boone and Raccoon Rivers can now take advantage of Vonage’s broadband phone service offering free unlimited local and long distance calling. Each plan includes the most popular features like call waiting, call forwarding and voicemail for one low, flat monthly rate. Vonage customers in the Des Moines area can now keep their current numbers or choose telephone numbers within the popular (515) and (641) area codes.

«Vonage is blazing the trail for affordable, full-featured phone service in Iowa’s capital city,» said Jeffrey A. Citron, chairman & CEO of Vonage Holdings Corp. «Our presence in Des Moines gives consumers and small businesses the option to choose a phone service that provides a great alternative to high-priced, low value traditional phone service from the incumbents.»

Using the latest technology, Vonage sets the standard for the new generation of phone service with residential and business calling plans:

-- $14.99/month — Residential Basic Plan — 500 minutes of local, toll and
long distance calling throughout the United States and Canada.
-- $24.99/month — Residential Premium Unlimited Plan — unlimited calling
throughout the 50 United States and Canada anytime, anywhere.
-- $39.99/month — Small Business Basic Plan — 1500 minutes of calling
throughout the United States and Canada, including a free dedicated fax
line.
-- $49.99/month — Small Business Unlimited Plan — unlimited calling
throughout the United States and Canada, including a free dedicated fax
line.

Services and hardware included for free on any of the above plans:

• Voicemail * Call hunt
  
• Caller ID * Call transfer
  
• Call waiting * Repeat dialing
  
• Call forwarding * Bandwidth saver
  
• Call return (*69) * Area code selection
  
• Caller ID block (*67) * International call block
  
• Web-based account management * Linksys RT31P2 Device
  -- Real-time billing activity * Great international calling rates:
  -- Online voicemail retrieval -- Tel Aviv 4 cents per minute
  -- Real-time inbound/outbound -- London 3 cents per minute
  call record details -- Sydney 4 cents per minute
  

About Vonage®

Vonage is redefining communications by offering consumers and small businesses an affordable alternative to traditional telephone service. The fastest growing telephony company in North America, Vonage’s service area encompasses more than 1950 active rate centers in over 125 global markets. Vonage is sold directly through [ >>> ] and retail partners such as Amazon.com, RadioShack, Best Buy, Circuit City, Staples, Fry’s Electronics and Office Depot. Wholesale partners such as EarthLink, ARMSTRONG®, Advanced Cable Communications and the Coldwater Board of Public Utilities resell the Vonage broadband phone service under their own unique brands. With more than 300,000 lines in service, Vonage continues to add more than 30,000 lines per month to its network. Over 5 million calls per week are made using Vonage, the easy-to-use, feature-rich, flat rate phone service. Vonage is headquartered in Edison, New Jersey. For more information about Vonage’s products and services, please visit [ >>> ] or call 1-VONAGE-HELP. Vonage®, Vonage Digital Voice™, Toll Free Plus(SM) and Virtual Phone Number(SM) are trademarks of Vonage Holdings Corp.

When Cox Roanoke speaksor, in industry terms, launches a new productthe rest of the company listens. Roanoke’s manageable size makes it a favorite testing ground for corporate, which turned to it yet again for the launch of VoIP phone service.

By Shirley Brady

When Marilyn Humphrey started at Cox’s Roanoke, Va., system as its new general manager last January, she was joining a team that was in the throes of launching a critical new product: VoIP telephone service.

«It was something of a moving train by the time I arrived, and it was a matter of making sure it stays on the tracks,» she recalls. «The beta test had started in October 2003, so a lot of the initial operating issues had been worked through and the really tough decisions about whether we were ready for prime time and ready to launch had [already] been made.»

Humphrey was tapped for her cable and telecom experiencea valuable mix when it came to managing the launchpad for Cox’s VoIP product. But she credits Roger Baiers, VP for Cox Business Services in Roanoke, for the trust Cox corporate in Atlanta placed in the Roanoke system’s ability to launch one of its most important services. She also credits Baiers for swiftly turning the trial into a local success story.



«We are one of the smaller Cox systems, so Roger wears about three hats,» says Humphrey. «He has responsibility for the Cox Business Services organization, for network engineeringeverything from our head-end to the guys making sure fiber’s up and running properlyand for overseeing our VoIP launch, which also meant getting everyone here as knowledgeable as possible about every aspect of this new product.»



«We just happen to have been fortunate to have been selected as the site launch for the company,» says Baiers. «We had a lot of help from our folks in Atlanta, and a lot of calls to make sure we were ready and we were all on the same page.»



The Nod From Corporate



The Roanoke system «had telephony expertise in-house, not just me,» says Baiers, who worked for the incumbent local exchange carrier for 26 years before joining Cox. «This location had been doing CAP [competitive access provider services] and quasi-CLEC [competitive local exchange carrier] business…so we had to go outside to hire very few people.»



Other factors that led to the selection of the Roanoke system as Cox’s VoIP leader: it was among the first of Cox’s systems to launch high-speed Internet; it had a fully upgraded plant; and its relative smallness meant a test would be manageable and scalable, so VoIP wouldn’t have to launch node by node, as would happen in a larger market, but across the entire system. «It’s not like launching in a San Diego or a Hampton Roads,» Baiers says.



Besides engaging its VoIP vendors (Cisco for the backbone plus Scientific-Atlanta, Nuera, Fujitsu, VeriSign and others), the system had to decide which resources would be local, which would come from Atlanta, and whether its soft switch would be local or based in the regional operations center in Hampton Roads. «We had to set up process flows and procedures between the three locations that would make the customer experience seamless,» Baiers says.



On the customer service side, Roanoke had to learn how to sell a phone product. «[For instance,] what are the hold times associated with processing a new phone customer?» Baiers says. «We heard horror stories from some of our other systems that you need to allow 45 minutes to take a phone order. Well, we’ve found it’s only 20 or 25 minutes.»



Humphrey and her team sought advice from sister markets that already had launched circuit-switch telephony, a non-IP based service marketed as Cox Digital Phone. «Omaha was the first Cox system to launch [that product] so we always look to them,» she says. «What have their promotions been? What did they learn as they went from relatively low penetration to extremely high penetration rates? And how will we evolve over time?»



Roanoke’s VoIP service will be sold as Cox Digital Telephone, a company-proven brand name that Humphrey believes distinguishes it from «extremely aggressive» competitors vying for Cox’s high-speed Internet, video and now phone customers. Dish Network launched a local channel last year; 10.6% of Roanoke homes passed by Cox subscribe to satellite, according to Media Business Corp. estimates.



Selling «Cox,» Not «VoIP»



«On the marketing, new product packaging and positioning standpoint the Cox Digital Phone brand is of huge value,» says Humphrey. «Our experience here with phone service is absolutely the same as it’s been in other [Cox] circuit-switch markets. The penetration rates occurred just as quickly, customers adopt it just as quickly, they’re just as satisfiedthere just is not that much difference from a deployment standpoint. So it has become the model, and Cox has made the decision to quietly expand deploying [VoIP] service to other markets.»

There’s still some confusion between Cox’s service and the VoIP services that are Internet-based, like Vonage or AT&T. «But it’s just not that interesting to customers to have to figure out that difference, which is why from our customers’ perspective here in Roanoke we don’t even talk about this as a VoIP service,» Humphrey says.

Even before the marketing efforts started in June, the competition started sharpening its knives. «Verizon did come out with a very aggressive campaign on their bundled, unlimited long-distance phone service with the high-speed data product for $79.99,» says Humphrey. «They were running full-page ads, so until we were able to launch our full-blown marketing efforts that was frustrating to watch, because we could just see our market evaporating.»

Since then, the Roanoke team has stayed focused on getting the word out. «The challenge has not just been keeping our message out there, but keeping it simple enough that customers believe it’s worth calling us to ask about the service,» she says. «All our research shows that people don’t care about the technology of the productit’s the benefits of the product. And that’s our advantage.»



Three Simple Phone Packages



With the next phase of Cox’s VoIP rolloutincluding a launch in Tulsa, Okla., Baton Rouge, La., west Texas and southwest Louisianastarting this fall, Humphrey is loathe to divulge results from her launch for companywide competitive reasons. Using insights gleaned from other Cox systems, Roanoke tested different price points for VoIP before settling on the final three-package lineup that launched to customers June 1, when the system started the all-out marketing efforts for the product, she adds.



The packages are straightforward. «Connection Unlimited» offers unlimited long-distance and nationwide minutes plus local service for $49.95 a month. «Connection 60» offers the same set of 14 features plus voicemail, but only 60 long-distance minutes, and costs $34.90. «Basic Line» costs $12.20 for existing Cox customers, who must pay extra for features such as voicemail ($4.95) or caller ID ($7.40). Basic Line subscribers not taking any other Cox services pay $13.59 per month.



As with all of Cox’s pricing, the deals are better for bundled phone customers, who save $10 each month on their Cox phone bill by also taking video and Internet services, or $5 a month for subscribing to just one of them. A current promotion shaves 50% off either Connection phone package for three months, including free installation.



Next Up: Business Phone Service



Although Roanoke recently introduced DVR service and last year launched high-definition TV channels, the focus is on picking up the phone biz. Next up: launching a commercial VoIP-based solution to Cox Business Service customers this fallanother company first.

«We’re in beta for that through the end of October and in November/December,» says Baiers. Cox will position it much like it did residential: small business bundles with data, video and voice. «We won’t launch larger business voice service until phase two, likely first quarter next year, which depends on devices that are yet to be manufactured and approved by Cox. [This will] go into universities, large businesses, call centers and the like. We’re working with the vendors so they’re making what we need.

»We’re still moderately limited by the hardware and gear that the vendors have for us," he adds. «We have some vendors that we’re testing, but for now we’re capping our offering at 16 lines or less.»

The Roanoke team is keeping a close eye on other phone services, such as wireless. «We’re definitely interested and watching, although that’s a question for Cox in Atlanta,» says Humphrey. «Verizon just came out with an integrated product that crosses wired and wireless boundaries, and of course that’s something that competitively we have to look at.»

That said, Humphrey understands that Cox Roanoke can’t tackle everything at the same time. «With [commercial VoIP] launching and residential VoIP under way, we’re really focused on this phone product and doing it right,» she says. «[This] was a launch year with a tremendous amount of technical learnings, operational learnings and new methods and procedures; 2005 and beyond is when we show the company how the promises will be kept with the same kind of market results that have been experienced in circuit-switch markets.»

Sprint Corp., owner of the fourth- largest U.S. wireless-phone service, said it will offer partial refunds to new corporate customers for poor call service.

New wireless contracts will promise refunds of as much as 30 percent to corporate customers if Sprint’s nationwide network has too many dropped or failed calls during a month, the Overland Park, Kansas-based company said in a statement. Customers must use a Web site to monitor Sprint’s performance.

Sprint is the first U.S. wireless carrier to give a service guarantee to all of its business customers, said Eugene Signorini, an analyst at Boston-based researcher Yankee Group. The move will help Sprint, which Consumer Reports magazine last year ranked near the bottom among U.S. carriers for service performance, improve the reputation of its network quality.

``It indicates that Sprint is serious about delivering enterprise-class wireless offerings,’’ Signorini said. ``Sprint, by being the leader out there, will also be able to set the bar where they want it to be.’’

Customers can request a 10 percent refund of monthly charges for each of three problems: if more than 2 percent of calls made within Sprint’s coverage area don’t connect; if more than 2 percent of completed calls are involuntarily disconnected; and if Sprint’s network is not running 99.9 percent of the time.

Shares of Sprint rose 10 cents to $18.08 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading Friday. The shares have risen 10 percent this year.

Network Performance

The measures are based on the performance of Sprint’s nationwide network, not on any one customer’s experience, said Vicki Warker, a vice president in Sprint’s business solutions unit. Customers can check a Web site each month to view Sprint’s network performance and request a refund if it failed.

``Business customers would prefer that we have a high- quality network than to get their money back,’’ Warker said.

Sprint’s PCS wireless unit had the second-highest number of complaints per subscriber among the six-largest U.S. wireless carriers last year, according to U. S. Federal Communications Commission figures compiled by Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. had the most.

Sprint ranked lowest or second-lowest in terms of customer satisfaction in 10 of 12 U.S. cities, according to a survey of 31,000 subscribers conducted last year by Consumer Reports.

Sprint said it spent $667 million during the second quarter to improve call quality on its wireless network, a 25 percent increase in spending from a year earlier.

Revenue in the PCS wireless unit, which accounts for more than half of Sprint’s sales, rose 17 percent to $3.61 billion as Sprint added 897,000 wireless subscribers in the quarter. Its long-distance revenue declined 6.6 percent to $1.87 billion.

MCI Inc. said yesterday that it doesn’t expect to add new residential calling customers because costs are increasing, the second major phone company in two weeks to announce its exit from residential phone service.
«We anticipate to downsize our [consumer business] effort significantly,» said Wayne Huyard, president of MCI’s U.S. sales and service division.

Mr. Huyard didn’t offer details about MCI’s plans, but the nation’s second-largest long-distance provider wants to turn its attention to the more profitable commercial business.
AT&T Corp., the nation’s largest long-distance provider, said July 22 that it will stop trying to attract customers but continue to provide long-distance and local service to its 35 million residential customers. AT&T is walking away from the residential-calling business because revenue has fallen owing to increased competition and higher costs.
MCI has 3.5 million residential customers for its local and long-distance phone service, and company officials said revenue from those customers amounts to about $3 billion annually.
«We don’t expect [residential phone service] will be a growth engine,» MCI spokesman Peter Lucht said after the company outlined its plan in a conference call to discuss second-quarter earnings.

MCI will continue to provide service to existing local and long-distance customers.
«We anticipate that our costs will go up and it will be more difficult to add new [residential] customers,» Mr. Lucht said.
MCI, based in Ashburn, Va., also plans to trim its work force to 41,300 by the end of the year. It has 44,800 workers currently, down from 57,300 at the end of 2003.
MCI lost $71 million (22 cents per share) in the second quarter, compared with net income of $8 million a year earlier, as sales fell owing to declining calling prices.
Sales fell from $6.17 billion a year ago to $5.24 billion for the three months that ended in June, the first quarter since it emerged from bankruptcy.

MCI Chief Executive Officer Michael Capellas said the company faces a «challenging industry environment» that has caused «relentless price competition.»
«We’ve made tremendous progress, but recognize that we have work to do,» Mr. Capellas said.
MCI also plans to pay a quarterly dividend of 40 cents a share. MCI has about $2.2 billion in excess cash, paving the way for the dividend.
Shares of MCI fell 8 cents to close at $13.84 on Nasdaq.
MCI officials didn’t discuss Leucadia Corp., the New York holding firm that wants to buy MCI’s outstanding shares of stock. Leucadia needs antitrust clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act before proceeding with its unsolicited bid because it already owns WilTel Communications Group, in Tulsa, Okla.
MCI has said the review period ends on or about Monday.

Sprint Corp. on Monday announced expanding local phone service in 35 markets targeted for mid-sized businesses and larger companies, with packages ranging from local and long-distance calling to voice, Internet and data services.

The telecommunications company said it has been providing the services to businesses in Columbus, Ohio,; Dallas; Houston; Kansas City,; Orlando, Fla;. and St. Louis and has expanded the packages to an additional 29 markets.

„Sprint Complete Access“ includes local phone service, a bundle of local and long-distance phone service, and a package of voice and data services. Businesses purchasing the bundles can receive discounts on wireless service through Sprint PCS, which is billed separately, the company said.

The typical configuration is six to 10 lines for integrated voice and data services and 23 lines for standalone local phone service, according to a Sprint spokesman.

Sprint, of Overland Park, Kan., is an incumbent local phone provider in 18 states, but Sprint Complete Access expands the company’s local-phone presence in the business market across the country.

BOCA RATON, Fla.(BUSINESS WIRE)July 12, 2004--
-- Level 3 to Bring Direct Inbound Dial Technology to i2Telecom’s VoIP Platform --
i2Telecom International, Inc. (OTCBB:ITUI), an emerging leader in voice/data communications technology for the Internet, today announced that it will use voice services from Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:LVLT) to introduce Direct Inbound Dial (DID) capability to i2Telecom’s Advanced Digital Voice platform™. With the addition of Level 3’s (3)VoIP(SM) Local Inbound service, i2Telecom’s customers can leverage the Company’s end-to-end Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network to receive calls that originate from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) through their InternetTalker™ microgateway devices anywhere in the world.

The benefits of the new agreement with Level 3 include i2Telecom’s ability to assign a traditional phone number, complete with local area code, to its easy-to-deploy InternetTalker devices. This means that businesses can use i2Telecom’s VoIP network to establish a presence in over 300 different markets across the United States — enabling people to dial a US local number from any phone to reach them regardless of where they are located.

«The ability to receive inbound calls from the PSTN means that i2Telecom customers can now use VoIP to reap significant savings on both inbound and outbound long distance phone calls,» commented Rick Scherle, Senior Vice President of Marketing at i2Telecom International, Inc. «By tapping into Level 3’s network, we are extending the power of our Advanced Digital Voice platform and continuing our commitment to partner with elite players for the benefit of our customers.»

i2Telecom’s proprietary Advanced Digital Voice platform™ (ADV) is a tightly integrated combination of hardware, software and ’talkware’ for next generation VoIP solutions. It consists of a new architecture for the Company’s microgateway products, innovative applications built to SIP standard, a global VoIP network, a global PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) interconnect network, and geographically dispersed Network Operation Centers.

«We’re pleased that i2Telecom elected to expand its VoIP platform using our voice origination services,» said Kevin Dundon, senior vice president of Wholesale Voice Services for Level 3. «We look forward to supporting i2Telecom’s low-cost, powerful and easy to use VoIP solution with new local number capabilities reaching more than 80 percent of the U.S. population.»

Businesses and consumers utilize i2Telecom’s VoIP technology to substantially reduce long-distance telecommunication costs. Customers now have access to easy-to-deploy VoIP solutions that easily interface with existing telephone systems. In addition to end-user customer benefits, i2Telecom’s Partnership Program enables telephony and IT Value-Added Resellers (VARs) to offer the business market a complete VoIP solution while earning income from each sale and recurring monthly revenues from minutes of usage.

About i2Telecom International, Inc.

i2Telecom International, Inc. (OTCBB:ITUI) is a low-cost telecommunications service provider employing next generation Voice over Internet Protocol («VoIP») technology with operations based in Boca Raton, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Redwood City, California; Malaysia and China. The Company controls its own proprietary technology and outsources its production and service functions to strategic partners. i2Telecom International provides microgateway adapters (InternetTalker™, Morpheus Voicebox™, EVoIP-4010™), VoIP long distance and other enhanced communication services to subscribers, and its proprietary technology platform is built to the Session Initiation Protocol («SIP») standard. i2Telecom International’s revenue model is multi-faceted and includes prepaid revenue from the sale of its InternetTalker™ integrated access devices, recurring monthly subscriptions, call minute termination fees and original equipment manufacturer royalties. For additional information visit www.i2telecom.com.

(3)VoIP is a service mark of Level 3 Communications, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. (3)VoIP Local Inbound service is offered by Level 3 Communications, LLC.

SAFE HARBOR Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. With the exception of the historical information contained in this release, the matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties that may individually or mutually impact the matters herein described, including, but not limited to, product acceptance, economic, competitive, governmental, results of litigation, technological and/or other factors which are outside the control of the company. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on such factors as changes in general economic conditions and financial or equity markets, technological changes, and other business risk factors. i2 Telecom does not assume, and expressly disclaims, any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Introduction of phone service by the cable company will result in the hires.

By Tim Knauss

Time Warner Cable’s plan to provide phone service over its cables will bring more than 40 jobs to Central New York.

The company will begin hiring technicians, sales agents and customer service representatives early in 2004 and plans to begin offering phone service by the end of the second quarter, said Jeff Unaitis, speaking for Time Warner Cable.

The company has advertised for a general manager to run the local telephone business, Unaitis said.

Time Warner Cable introduced what it calls «Digital Phone» in May in Portland, Maine, and plans to roll out the service in many of its markets during the coming year. Recently, the service was introduced in a second market, Raleigh, N.C.

Instead of sending calls over telephone wires, Time Warner Cable sends calls over the same lines that carry its TV and Internet signals.

Customers make calls as they normally would. A cable modem attached to the telephone converts each call into a digital signal and transmits it over cable lines to a data center. Before being handed off to the traditional phone network, calls are converted back into analog signals.

Each call from Portland is processed by equipment at Time Warner Cable’s office in DeWitt, which serves as the company’s Internet hub for the Northeast. A so-called «soft switch» provides dial tone and routes the calls.

Time Warner Cable’s plans to extend the service to new areas got a boost Monday, when the company announced agreements with Sprint and MCI that will help speed up the nationwide rollout. Time Warner plans to introduce phone service in most of its markets by the end of 2004, said Keith Cocozza, speaking for the company.

Sprint and MCI will help Time Warner provide long-distance service, interconnect with traditional phone networks and offer services such as caller ID and E-911.

The price in Portland for unlimited local and long-distance calls is $39.95 for digital cable or Internet subscribers, and $49.95 for nonsubscribers. More than 8,000 customers in Maine have signed up since May, Cocozza said.

To make room at the DeWitt office for new employees who will focus on phone service, Time Warner Cable plans to move its advertising sales group from DeWitt to the third floor of its downtown News 10 Now building, Unaitis said. The space, which is unoccupied, will be renovated soon to accommodate the move, he said.

Time Warner Cable has about 1,000 employees in the region, 750 of whom work in the greater Syracuse area.

by Anita Jain

Time Warner Cable will roll out Internet-based telephone service nationwide next year with help from partners Sprint and MCI.

The service will cost Time Warner Cable customers $39.95 a month for unlimited local, regional and long-distance service. Noncustomers will pay $49.95 a month. The voice-over-Internet-protocol service is already available in Portland, Maine, and Raleigh, N.C.

VOIP service allows voice data to be sent over Internet networks. Time Warner Cable will use circuit switch networks provided by Sprint and MCI.

Last month, Long Island-based Cablevision Systems Corp. launched VOIP telephone service in the New York metropolitan area. Cablevision’s service, called Optimum Voice, is available only to subscribers to its high-speed Internet service, called Optimum Online, which has more than 1 million customers in Long Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, Westchester, the Bronx, and parts of Brooklyn. Optimum Voice offers unlimited local, regional, and long-distance calling across the U.S. and Canada for a flat rate of $34.95 per month.
Copyright 2003, Crain Communications, Inc