triple-play

With its acquisition of NBC Universal finally done, Comcast today reported a boost in both sales and earnings for its fourth quarter.

For the quarter ended December 31, the cable carrier earned $1.02 billion, a gain of 6.6 percent from the $955 million earned in the prior year's quarter. Sales grew by 7.2 percent to reach $9.72 billion compared with $9.07 billion a year ago. Both results managed to beat the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, according to Reuters, and prompted the company to lift its annual dividend by 19 percent.

With … Read more

After nearly five years of planning and fighting with local cable and phone companies, the Lafayette Utilities System opened its fiber-optic broadband network for business.

The utility began offering service this week, according to the Lafayette, La. local newspaper, The Daily Advertiser. A small number of customers already have phone, TV, and Internet service. And beginning Friday, LUS will begin marketing the service to customers in the first phase of the roll out. LUS plans to roll out service gradually in three phases and expects to offer a triple play service to all residents throughout the city by 2011.

The … Read more

Consumers are benefiting from competition between phone companies and cable operators when it comes to broadband pricing, but the same can't be said for pricing on TV services.

A report published by market research firm Pike & Fischer earlier this month notes that cable broadband prices have remained steady even though operators have been increasing speeds. The firm attributes this trend to more competition from Verizon's all-fiber network, Fios, which offers superfast broadband at competitive prices.

Average prices for cable modem service have remained steady at about $40 to $45 a month, the firm said. That's even … Read more

Results from a new customer survey suggest consumers would rather subscribe to a triple play bundle of services from a phone company than from a cable operator.

On Tuesday the market research firm CFI Group released results from a customer satisfaction study that indicated that almost twice as many consumers are interested in buying a bundle of phone, broadband and TV service from a phone company than from a cable operator. But because phone companies haven't completed rolling out TV and upgraded broadband services to all their customers, more consumers buy the bundle from the cable company. Only about 2 percent of those surveyed subscribe to TV service from a phone company.

Using the American Customer Satisfaction Index created by the University of Michigan, CFI surveyed more than 1,200 consumer households to examine customer satisfaction with video, broadband Internet access and wireless communications services. The group concluded that consumers are more dissatisfied with cable operators than they are with phone companies, which could give phone companies a big advantage in vying for customers.

According to the study, consumers said that high cable rates and poor customer service were the two biggest reasons they would consider leaving a cable provider. And customers also cited faster Internet speeds as a top reason to switch from cable to a phone company's service.

"The cable companies are asleep at the wheel if they don't see the threat from the telecoms," said Phil Doriot, program director for CFI Group. "But the network upgrades aren't going to happen overnight, so cable companies still have the opportunity to improve their customer service and cover their Achilles heel."… Read more

Satellite TV provider Dish Network said Tuesday that AT&T will end its agreement to bundle its TV service with AT&T's broadband and phone service at the end of the year.

AT&T and Dish have had a joint marketing deal since July 2003, which allows AT&T to package the Dish TV service with AT&T's phone and Internet packages. But AT&T has decided not to renew the agreement, and as required by the contract between the two companies, AT&T is giving Dish six months notice that … Read more