Cox Communications which has one of the nations better networks on its own, and who has for years offered Cable Telephony service has gotten one step closer to rolling out VoIP to its customer base nationwide, with the announcement of an agreement with San Diego based Nuera for media gateways after a successful trail in Roanoke, VA.
This means that Cox will likely work with networks like Level3, Global Crossing and other networks on tier one piering relationships. I also suspect that Cox will raise the upload bandwidth at some point for customers who bundle in phone service. Likely they will provision the entire network, and eventually bundle in “faster uploads” at lower prices. If this will pass the PUC’s is a big question.
Another thought. Just as cellular companies of old started by the RBOCs were spun out due to Judge Greene’s ruling in 1981 that created divestiture, one has to wonder at what point the FCC will ask the cable companies to do the same thing. I would not be surprised if some smart company (i.e Vonage) or even a smart person like Jeff Pulver, provides a friendly brief highlighting the comparison and get pre-emptive relief from the FCC or PUC’s that tells the cable companies to avoid preference in rates, quality of service, access or port blocking. In a nutshell, no messing around with services that could compete with them, on any level.
That day is coming sooner than we think.