According to a recent In-Stat consumer survey, the majority of US cable telephony subscribers are happy with their phone service. Eighty-five percent of the survey respondents, all of whom were using telephony services provided by their local cable TV operator, stated that they were either "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with their cable telephony service. Only 6% stated that they were unsatisfied with their service. While most telephony service providers can boast of high customer satisfaction levels, for the cable industry, these are fairly heady numbers.
In addition to taking the pulse of cable telephony subscribers on their overall satisfaction with the service, the survey also found that:

• A significant percentage of cable telephony subscribers in the US are new to the service. Forty-two percent of the respondents stated that they had just signed up for the service in the preceding 12 months.
• The vast majority of cable telephony subscribers only have one line in their home. Across the country, the average number of cable telephony lines per household is currently 1.16.
• Most cable telephony subscribers have never had a serious problem with their service. Seventy-four percent of the survey respondents said they had never made a service call to either fix or repair their service.
• In addition to the consumer survey, recent In-Stat research on the US cable telephony market shows that there are currently 9.5 million cable telephony subscriber households in the country, which is equal to 8% of total US households. This total rose by 60% in the past twelve months.

As might be expected by the subscriber growth, cable telephony revenue growth has also been noteworthy. In 2006, US cable TV operators racked up $4.5 billion in revenues from their cable telephony services, a 66% increase over 2005 revenues.
For more details on what's happening in the cable telephony market in the US and around the world, check out In-Stat's "The Worldwide Market for Cable Telephony Services" (IN0703201MBS), which was just published in early April. This report is available online at:
http://email.in-stat.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/h6bB0HWMdu0K560FCJp0  
Mike Paxton, Principal Analyst
mpaxton@reedbusiness.com