AOL Time Warner Cable tests IP phone service

AOL Time Warner Cable is taking a first baby step to offer IP telephone services over its digital cable television system. The company has announced an unlimited local, in-state and domestic long distance IP telephone service trial to subscribers in Portland, Maine.

Time Warner Cable’s Digital Phone will cost $40 a month and be similar to the telephone service trial offerings of competitors, Cablevision Systems and Comcast Cable Communications. Unlike traditional switched network telephone service, cable services use the Internet to move voice data.

Digital Phone subscribers are provided familiar phone features including voice mail, caller ID, and call waiting.

If the IP telephony trials are successful, cable operators see it as a way to add another revenue stream to their digital cable infrastructures.