Comcast customers will use its VoD service 50% more times by year...

VoIP is available to 12 million homes, and 15 million households will be able to get it by year- end. The service -- $39.95 for subscribers to 3 Comcast products -- will be “a new growth engine,” Alchin predicted. “We think [Comcast] will be highly competitive in the market” with Comcast Digital Voice, he said. Some 1,000 Comcast employees are working on the voice business; E-911, billing, provisioning and customer service “are all in place,” Alchin said. The company is providing “redundancy” for E-911, Alchin said. The introduction of digital simulcasting has helped boost certain revenue about $4 a customer monthly, he said. The company’s Enhanced Basic product, offering DTV and VoD at no charge, is reducing customer churn and not affecting sales of a fuller digital product that costs about $15 monthly. “It’s this product that’s going to enable us to drive the digital penetration beyond the 42% that it’s at now,” he said. Comcast’s VoIP is considered a primary phone service, said Charlotte Field, senior vp-national communications engineering & operations. Comcast, which has extensively tested 911 readiness, must have 3 paths of emergency communication under regulations in many areas, she said. Part of the e-911 service uses the firm’s existing circuit-switched equipment, said Cathy Avgiris, senior vp-Comcast voice services. “Comcast has been in the phone business since our merger with AT&T Broadband,” she said. “We understand how 911 works and how e911 works, and we've leveraged all of that experience.” - JM