IP Democracy: Comcast to Launch Video Telephony in 2007

(Boston, MA) A big, fat, juicy scoop landed at my feet here at VON — the nation’s top cable company, Comcast, plans to launch a video telephony service in 2007, which some people close to the company are calling a “Skype killer.”

The Philadelphia-based broadband leader is putting the finishing touches on its deals with one or more tech vendors to set up a service that will enable users to communicate in real-time via both voice and video. The service will be PC-based and free to Comcast’s broadband subscribers.

Moreover, Comcast plans to pitch the initiative to other cable companies, such as Time Warner, Cox, Cablevision and Charter, in an effort to create an industry-wide, interoperable service.

Comcast plans to give customers the option of storing their video calls on company servers. As time goes on and customer libraries grow, Comcast’s triple-play customers will be less and less likely to switch to a competitive providers and the cost to Comcast of storing the videos is negligible.

This push to create a web-based video telephony service will be a top priority for the operator in 2007, or so the word goes.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on September 13, 2006 1:31 PM to IP Democracy