Comcast plans to launch in the next six months enhanced home phone service in Denver that features self-installation and cordless handsets with partial Web-browsing capabilities.
The offering is aimed at consumers who don’t want to wait at home for up to two hours for a service technician to activate their phone service.
It also targets those who covet new features such as visual voice mail, which allows users to check messages in any order and not just in the order they were received. That feature is one of the high points of the iPhone, Apple’s much-hyped entrance into the cellphone business.
“We’re always looking for new ways to provide additional convenience and additional flexibility to our customers,” said Cathy Avgiris, senior vice president of Comcast’s phone business.
Avgiris said the company hasn’t finalized how much consumers will be charged for the special cordless phones and do-it-yourself installation kits.
The kits will feature a base station that links to a cable modem and will work with up to three cordless handsets.
The company has been testing the service in San Francisco, and customers have been able to set it up in 30 minutes or less, Avgiris said.
Philadelphia-based Comcast, with more than 24 million subscribers the nation’s largest cable-TV operator, has 3.1 million digital phone customers nationwide.
The enhanced phone service is the latest salvo in Comcast’s ongoing battle with phone companies such as Denver-based Qwest to win residential customers by offering a “triple play” of phone, TV and Internet service.
“It just gives them another arrow in their quiver to help provide service faster for people when they want it,” said Donna Jaegers, a telecom analyst with Janco Partners in Greenwood Village. “I don’t think it’s a huge competitive advantage, but it certainly plays up the fact that it’s easier for the cable companies to go after the telecom market than it is for the telecom players to go after the cable market.”
Qwest spokeswoman Kate Varden said the company “typically provides new service within a few days of the request, and frequently we can turn up service for customers without access to their homes – so they don’t have to wait for us to arrive.”
Customers won’t have to subscribe to Comcast’s high-speed Internet and cable-TV services to sign up for the enhanced home phone service, though the service requires some sort of Internet connection. Consumers who have a Comcast e-mail account can check their in boxes, send e-mails and sync their address book with the phone. News and sports information will also be available on the handset.
Avgiris said Comcast will introduce the new service in a few key markets, such as Denver, Boston and Philadelphia, in the coming months before it is offered across the company’s service territory.
Comcast has about 820,000 cable subscribers in Colorado. The company doesn’t provide specifics about its phone customers.
Staff writer Andy Vuong can be reached at 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com.
