Hoping to make Internet-protocol telephony easier to dial into, Arris and Net2Phone Inc. have struck an alliance to jointly offer cable operators a fully managed integrated voice network, with all hardware and software elements based on Cable Television Laboratories Inc.'s PacketCable specifications.
Under the alliance, Arris will offer the hosted telephony-over-IP service, allowing MSOs to launch voice services over a managed network with fewer start-up costs.
The service will use Net2Phone's call-management service, while Arris will supply its family of multimedia-terminal adapters, "Touchstone" telephony modems, Touchstone telephony port and its "Cadent C4" cable-modem-termination system.
"Our agreement with Net2Phone combines our world-leading experience developing and integrating large-scale cable-telephony deployments with Net2Phone's unique operations experience and hosted business model," said Stan Brovont, vice president of marketing for Arris' broadband unit.
"We are offering to accelerate cable operators' entry into telephony by many, many months with dramatically less investment and risk," he added.
