Digital telephony: Cablecom and UPC double their customer numbers in 18 months
Zurich (ots)
UPC Broadband, parent company of Cablecom in Switzerland, has reached the million threshold for telephony customers within its European footprint. This success of doubling the number of telephony customers over the last 18 months is mainly driven by the accelerated growth of UPC's VoIP (Voice over IP) based Digital Telephony service. In Switzerland cablecom's telephony product was recently rated best VoIP product in a test conducted by the consumer television program Kassensturz.
With more than 200,000 customers, cablecom digital phone makes a significant contribution to the success of UPC. In seven European countries, UPC offers digital telephony with Voice over IP (VoIP), including Holland, Hungary, France and Austria. In Europe approximately 9.3 million of the households connected to the UPC network are able to use digital telephony.
UPC is one of the first cable network companies to introduce SIP-based (Session Initiation Protocol) voice services. With this launch, UPC has created the preconditions for attractive additional services such as instant messaging, video chat or the extension of the range of mobile handsets. For the future, UPC is planning a convergence product for fixed network and mobile telephony on the basis of VoIP/SIP - for Switzerland and other UPC markets. The launch of this convergence product is scheduled for next year.
Market leader in alternative fixed network telephony
Since its market launch of digital telephony in June 2004, cablecom has established itself as the only real alternative to the conventional fixed network connection. Cablecom digital phone, i.e. telephony via a television cable connection, was able to acquire more than 200,000 customers in less than two years. Apart from an excellent price / performance ratio, digital phone offers numerous additional functions such as a net-based digital answering machine and the possibility of sending SMS.
Cablecom wins Kassensturz test
The consumer magazine "Ktipp" and the television magazine "Kassensturz" thoroughly examined the alternative telephony products with Voice over IP in February 2006. In the test, which was conducted by Rapperswil College, cablecom won the race and was ranked the best alternative telephony provider by both Ktipp and Kassensturz in March 2006.
Rudolf Fischer, Managing Director of cablecom comments: "In addition to Internet and TV, telephony has now become one of our core products which we will make even more attractive by extending our range of mobile services. An integrated product for fixed and mobile telephony is being developed. Apart from private households, we want the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) - segment to benefit increasingly from our position as market leader in the VoIP sector. We offer convergent data / voice solutions specifically for SMEs."
About cablecom
Cablecom is Switzerland's largest cable network company supplying its customers with quadruple play products in the areas of cable television, broadband Internet as well as mobile and fixed network telephony. In addition, cablecom offers voice, data and value-added services for business customers. Cablecom also provides plant engineering, application and transmission services for cable network companies for television, telephony and Internet. The company's own country-wide network (one of only two in Switzerland) supplies 14 out of the country's 16 largest cities. Cablecom is a national subsidiary of UPC Broadband, the European cable network group of Liberty Global Inc.
About Liberty Global
Liberty Global is the leading international cable operator offering advanced video, voice, and Internet-access services to connect our customers to the world of entertainment, communications and information. At December 31, 2005, Liberty Global operated state-of-the-art broadband communications networks that served approximately 15 million customers in 19 countries principally located in Europe, Japan, Chile, and Australia. Liberty Global's operations also include significant media and programming businesses such as Jupiter TV in Japan and chellomedia in Europe.
Contact:
Cablecom Media Relations
Stephan Howeg
Head of Corporate Communications
Phone +41/44/277'99'99
Fax +41/44/277'95'88
E-mail: media.relations@cablecom.ch