While the business services industry represents a $60 billion opportunity for cable operators, they’ve just started to scratch the service.
In Monday’s session, “Best Practices: Roadmap to business services’ operational success,” Cox Business’ Kristine Faulkner, VP of product development and management, asked a panel of cable operator employees their respective approaches for tapping into the commercial services market, which has traditionally been dominated by ILECs.
Time Warner Cable Business Class’ Dave Montierth, regional VP of Los Angeles, said the first opportunity for his company is the small- to medium-size businesses sector. Once those customers are on board, Time Warner Cable Business Class will go after the larger enterprise customers.
Bresnan Communications’ Steve Brookstein, EVP of operations, said that his company is focusing on building a commercial services platform that focuses on voice and data, with some video applications, as well. Bresnan wanted to implement its suite of business services so that it wasn’t just reliant on residential revenues, and because of the higher margins in offering commercial services.
“The market is there, and it’s there for the taking,” Brookstein said.
Mitch Bowling, Comcast Cable’s SVP and GM of online services, said that business services represent an extension of platforms that Comcast already has in place for voice, video and data services.
Optimum Lightpath, a division of Cablevision, took a different path to its business services offerings when it committed to a separate fiber infrastructure for Ethernet services several years ago, according to Dave Pistacchio, Optimum Lightpath’s EVP and GM. The end result is that Optimum Lightpath has been able to successfully target large enterprise customers such as hospitals and governmental agencies.
Optimum Lightpath is also able to divide customers with Cablevision’s cable modem business services unit, which allows it to offer a service to branch offices that are outside of its fiber footpath.
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