Comcast, Charter delve into digital phone service

Comcast, the cable television provider for all of the City of Houma, and Charter Communications, which covers the remaining areas of Terrebonne Parish including Bourg, Montegut, Chauvin, and Schriever, have begun offering digital telephone service in recent weeks, along with their already-existing cable and high-speed Internet packages.

Comcast’s telephone service has unlimited local and long-distance calling. Customers can place international telephone calls.

The service, which is hooked into the emergency 911 system, has standard voicemail, caller ID, three-way calling, and call-forwarding features.

Comcast is charging $39.95 a month for its phone service when purchased with cable and Internet, and $44.95 a month when it is purchased with cable or Internet. The public can subscribe to the telephone service alone for $54.95 a month.

Customers who have both telephone and high-speed Internet service can check their voicemail, and their e-mail, online by logging on to www.comcast.net. The user signs in to a secure site.

“Voicemails can be played over the computer, so you are always in touch, no matter where you go,” a Comcast news release states.

Customers can keep their current telephone numbers, and manage their accounts online.

Comcast uses Internet Protocol technology, meaning that most of a telephone call placed in its system travels over the company’s private network.

The company says that installation takes around an hour, and connects all telephone lines in the home into the Comcast system.

Comcast took over Time Warner’s Houma cable-television operation starting in August 2006. Time Warner in Houma was “just beginning to offer telephone service” before the company transferred the system to Comcast, said General Manager Jacqui Dugas.

“We had to put it on hold because of the transfer,” said Dugas, who also served as general manager for Time Warner.

Comcast began offering telephone service in Louisiana in March 2007 in Shreveport and Monroe. The company, which is headquartered regionally in Atlanta, has over two million telephone customers nationally, and 24 million cable-television subscribers.

Charter Communications, headquartered locally in Thibodaux, launched its digital telephone service over a month ago.

The service has all the standard digital telephone features, such as unlimited local and long-distance calling, caller ID, call forwarding, and voice messaging.

Customers can access their Charter accounts online, but they will not be able to

hear voicemails over the computer. The digital telephone service uses Internet Protocol technology.

“We’re not like Vonage,” said Charter Communications Director of Governmental Relations Jim Laurent. “We don’t send out the telephone call over the World Wide Web.”

Charter is offering a $29.99 a month introductory price for three months for its telephone service. After that, the charge is $34.99 a month for telephone service if a customer has Charter Internet and cable television, $39.99 a month for customers with digital cable only, and $44.99 a month for those with basic cable only.

The telephone service charge does not include the price of the Charter Internet service and cable television.