Triple-play report sees growth in cablecos’ phone services

Canadian cable operators including Rogers and Shaw Communications are expected to have a total of 1.57 million residential telephony customers by the end of 2006, up from 835,000 at the end of 2005, says a report on the triple-play market from Convergence Consulting Group. The report, named Battle for the North American Couch Potato, predicts that the number of consumers signed up to cable telephony services will reach 3.35 million by the end of 2009. It also forecasts that the number of high-definition TV subscribers will reach 800,000 subscribers by end-2006, up from 430,000 a year earlier.