Comcast launches triple play aimed at businesses

Comcast’s launch last week of a voice service aimed at small to mid-sized businesses in New England is the latest in a series of cable forays into VoIP that could mean this is the year the big guys really set their sights on the $55 billion U.S. market. Comcast’s triple-play packages start at $99 and include calling features like auto attendant, call forwarding, call tracing, three-way calling and more.
 
The Internet offering includes download speeds up to 16MB/s and software packages including web-based Internet applications from Microsoft. Those applications include corporate class email, document sharing through Sharepoint and security and data protection from McAfee. Comcast says it will continue to roll out the new business service across its markets in the coming months.
 
Industry analysts said cable sees small business as a soft spot for the telcos, which have been losing residential landline subscribers at an alarming rate. The key? Cost.
 
“Pricing in the (small to medium enterprise]) segment is typically very high, leaving the door open to a telco alternative,” Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a report on the commercial telecom services sector last week.
 
For more:
- Read Comcast’s release
- And the story, “Operators don business attire” in Multichannel News

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