Sprint Nextel today announced a significant expansion of its relationship with Time Warner Cable, the second-largest cable operator in the United States and a unit of Time Warner Inc. Sprint Nextel has been selected to help provision Time Warner Cable’s Digital Phone service in an additional 14 service areas. Time Warner Cable will soon utilize Sprint Nextel’s IP Network to offer VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) based telephone service across most of its footprint of approximately 28 million homes-passed, except for Time Warner Cable’s systems in New Hampshire and Maine.
Sprint Nextel now serves cable companies with a total of more than 1.2 million VoIP subscribers across more than 1,100 rate centers. Over a one-year period, Sprint Nextel is expected to provide cable telephony wireline services to cable companies serving over 2.5 million subscribers. The new five year agreement marks Sprint Nextel’s continued expansion into the cable market, creating a revenue stream with strong growth potential. Sprint Nextel plans to continue to use its telecom assets and communications expertise to expand its delivery of telephony solutions to the cable industry.

“Sprint Nextel has proven to be an excellent partner and we look forward to expanding our relationship with them,” said Glenn Britt, president and chief executive officer of Time Warner Cable. “Time Warner Cable now serves 1.6 million Digital Phone customers, and telephone has become one of the fastest growing segments of our video, high-speed data and voice bundle.”

As part of the agreement, Sprint Nextel will carry long-distance traffic for Time Warner Cable residential customers and provide turnkey telephone services such as 911 services,

relay systems and operator services. Digital phone calls begin on the Time Warner Cable network and travel to its regional data centers. Calls are completed over the Sprint Nextel nationwide network. From the customer’s perspective, their inbound and outbound calls will continue to be seamless.

“Our vision for the cable initiative, whether its wireline or wireless, is to deliver compelling, integrated services that provide unique value to customers,” said Gary Forsee, Sprint Nextel president and chief executive officer. “This expanded agreement with Time Warner Cable is illustrative of our company’s growing importance in the cable sector.”

Specific to the agreement with Time Warner Cable, Sprint Nextel will provide:

  • Interconnection facilities between Time Warner Cable’s switch and the public telephone network for local and long-distance calling.
  • Support for the cable voice telephony through E911 management, new and ported management, directory assistance, operator services and a full suite of other local exchange carrier services.