Top ten cable cable MSO Cable One has introduced hosted voice, a cloud-based virtual PBX. The service has launched in 8 markets across 7 states. It will be available to the majority of Cable One’s markets by the end of the year.
“Hosted Voice is a feature-rich virtual telephone system that allows business customers to reduce the cost of buying and maintaining a complex PBX system,” Chris Boone, the Vice President of Business Services for Cable One, said in a blog post. “With Hosted Voice, all equipment is leased and all updates and repairs are handled by Cable One. In addition to helping our customers save money, this solution also eases the stress placed on their internal IT teams.”
The service enables any organization to mix and match voice “seats” with the optional features and devices that meet each users’ needs. The hosted voice platform targets businesses of all sizes. Pricing starts at $19.99 per month per seat for the lowest functionality, which consists of basic calling features and unlimited long distance when bundled with a business Internet plan for three years.
Cable One is the seventh-largest cable company in the United States, serving more than 800,000 customers in 21 states. Launch markets for the service include: Anniston, Ala.; Prescott, Ariz.; Boise, Idaho; Nampa, Idaho; Grenada, Miss.; Fargo, N.D.; Duncan, Okla.; and Sherman, Texas
The introduction appears to be part of the ongoing execution of the cable MSO’s strategy. In March, Kevin Coyle, Cable One’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer said that the company’s margins exceeded 47% during the fourth quarter of 2017. This, he claimed, was the highest margin in the cable industry.
Coyle said that the key was deemphasizing traditional video in favor of broadband and business services. That change dates back to 2012, when it was decided that the traditional video business “was broken or damaged” and that traditional cable services were too expensive. That was prescient. It was not until two or three years later that the cord cutting trend became common and was acknowledged to be a threat to the legacy video programming distribution model.
