Cable VoIP Providers Keep Advantage

A patent decision in favor of cable provider Comcast, from a suit initiated by Caritas Technologies, might give cable providers an advantage in the VoIP market. Caritas holds patents that relate to hybrid VoIP calls between IP and PSTN networks and sought to stop Comcast’s Digital Voice (CDV) offering. The District court ruled that the patents didn’t apply. Thus, they won’t get the US$2.2B settlement they were looking for. Had they been ruled in favor of, there may have been a huge impact on VoIP service costs via cable providers. [Though to be honest, a cursory, unscientifc survey of VoIP services shows that cable companies charge more than other types of providers, even though they already make money on the regular cable subscription.]

Comcast has been doing very well this year, with plans to hire 4,000 new employees in the US, and it’s probably natural that they would be targeted by a patent-holding company if the latter thought they could score some points.