It's Only a Matter of Time

If asked to name the largest U.S. providers of POTS or POTS substitutes, most people in the industry could come up with the top three or four. Not many would get the top six to 10. So today's list looks something like at&t, Verizon, Qwest, Embarq (formerly Sprint), Windstream (formerly Alltel), CenturyTel and Citizens Communications.

But there's lots of activity at around the two million subs mark. Vonage and Cox Communications already have crested two million, and is pushing Citizens and Century for a spot in the rankings. Comcast will break through the two million level shortly, and the only question is how fast it will close on Qwest. Time Warner and Cablevision also have broken the million-and-half customer level. Put another way, the U.S. cable industry already is positioned right behind Embarq among larger providers of classic voice services in the U.S. market.