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Comcast Targets Atlanta Area With Phone Service

Posted on: Friday, 18 March 2005, 00:00 CST

Mar. 18--Comcast, aiming to grow at BellSouth's expense, says it plans to be a "quality phone company" with services unlike its competitors.

Philadelphia-based Comcast, the nation's No. 1 cable provider, will roll out its phone service in metro Atlanta this year.

But the service, based on a technology called Voice over Internet Protocol, won't be a copycat of BellSouth's, Brian Roberts, Comcast's chief executive, said in an interview.

"Our main goal is to quickly evolve the product to not just be voice, but to be (an integrated) communications product," said Roberts. He was in Atlanta to speak to Comcast employees and to the board of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

That not only means offering features such as unified messaging -- where all messages, be it voice, e-mail or whatever, go into one in-box -- but video phone service as well.

"I was looking this week in our labs at the video phone product that we are going to offer over the Comcast digital voice platform, over the Comcast high-speed (Internet) platform, all within a year to 18 months," Roberts said.

Comcast, which has 700,000 customers in 12 metro Atlanta counties and Rome, will take its time to roll out the service, initially targeting those who subscribe to its high-speed Internet service.

Phone calls will be routed over Comcast's facilities, not over the public Internet. That will help to ensure quality of service, Roberts said. Emergency 911 service will be included, as well as directory assistance and backup power to enable phones to work in a power outage.

"All of that is needed to really try to take significant market share and to be a quality phone company," Roberts said. "We're going to take our time. We're not in a race. We think this is a good business for the next 50 years."

Roberts reckons that Comcast can achieve a 20 percent market penetration in phone service in five years. Its service will cost $39.95 a month for unlimited local and domestic long-distance calls.

Metro Atlanta is one of Comcast's top four markets, Roberts said.

The others are Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.

"This is clearly the fastest-growing large market we have in terms of population and housing growth," Roberts said.

Comcast wants to extend its reach here.

"It's a high priority to grow in this area," said Roberts, without elaborating.

Comcast and Time Warner have bid for Adelphia Communications, which owns clusters of cable systems in some of North Georgia's fastest-growing counties, such as Cherokee and Bartow.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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CMCSK, BLS, TWX,

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

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