CenturyLink has a long legacy of delivering traditional POTS voice services, but the service provider sees an opportunity to enhance its broadband subscriber base with consumer VoIP.
Tony Davis, VP of investor relations, told investors during Oppenheimer’s 19th Annual Technology, Internet and Communications conference it plans to roll out a hosted VoIP service for consumers at a later date.
However, Davis could not provide a specific timeline as to when the VoIP service would be available.
“In terms of VoIP, we do expect to roll out a consumer VoIP as a part of a bundle,” David said. “I know that’s on the drawing board and it gives us an opportunity to package it in a way that’s not a regulated service that we have to comply with.”
Offering VoIP as part of a bundle also plays into CenturyLink’s move to focus on customers that want service packages.
Davis said that the telco continues to try to lure customers with broadband as its lead product, not POTS voice service.
“Generally, we don’t go to market to sell a voice line as a point of entry because it’s about the broadband activity,” Davis said. “If you think about 15-20 years ago if I were moving from point A to point B, I wanted to make sure the phone line was working, but now we want to make sure broadband and entertainment is working when I get to point B.”
However, the telco’s effort to focus on bundled customers are causing some near-term broadband subscriber pain. The service provider dropped 65,000 subscribers during the second quarter, but the telco contends that its move to focus on customers who take a double or triple play bundles.
“We’re pivoting away from the sale of standalone broadband service and going back to more of a bundled play, high ARPU, longer lifetime customer,” Davis said. “We’re in the middle of that pivot right now and we lead with broadband and package bundles around that offer.”
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