Comcast said Wednesday that growth in its phone business now makes it the nation’s third-largest residential provider, surpassing Denver-based Qwest.
Comcast said 12 consecutive quarters of growth in phone service have brought its nationwide residential- customer total to 6.47 million, exceeding Qwest’s reported 5.96 million.
Verizon is the nation’s largest provider, followed by AT&T.
Qwest noted that its service territory is 14 states, compared with Comcast’s 39 states.
“That we’re even in a voice race (with Comcast) is curious to us,” said Qwest spokesman Bob Toevs. “Our focus is on delivering a very complete customer experience, including voice, broadband, video and wireless.”
Comcast is the largest cable-TV provider in Colorado, with about 800,000 subscribers. The firm does not break out its phone-service customers by state.
Comcast’s announcement on phone-service growth came as senior executives assembled in Denver on Wednesday to conduct a teleconference with Comcast employees focused on customer-service goals.
“There are gaps (in Comcast’s service quality). There’s no question,” said Dave Watson, executive vice president of operations for Philadelphia-based Comcast. “We need to get better, and we realize this. Our employees are energized.”
Comcast also said Wednesday that in June it will launch in Colorado a video version of caller ID — a service that allows customers to see incoming caller information on television and personal-computer screens.
Steve Raabe: 303-954-1948 or sraabe@denverpost.com
