BRIEFS

BY MAVIS SCANLON

With Comcast preparing for a VoIP telephony rollout and Cox prepping a deployment in Roanoke, Va., the nascent service got a little more credibility. Cablevision and Time Warner are already rolling out the service. Comcast sees the service becoming a driver of revenue growth after 2005, roughly coinciding with an expected falloff in the strong growth rates of high-speed data. Comcast lost subscribers during the third quarter for its circuit-switched telephony product, but the loss was expected as the company has stated it is focusing on reducing telephony costs, lowering bad debt and increasing efficiency. Comcast's telephone margins increased to over 15%.

Cablevision Systems is now providing its Optimum Online cable modem service to more than 1 million customers ? a milestone for the MSO. About 500,000 customers were added in the first nine months of this year. More than 23% of all homes that can receive Optimum Online service opt to do so, Cablevision said.

C-COR said Friday it entered an agreement to sell substantially all of its claims against Adelphia Communications for unpaid bills. The sale, to an undisclosed third party, is expected to close soon. Although the total amount C-COR could receive ultimately depends on the outcome of the bankruptcy proceeding, according to C-COR, the company will receive an initial cash payment of $21 million. C-COR wrote off about $45 million in receivables from Adelphia.

Cable in the Classroom, C-SPAN and Time Warner Cable have teamed up with educators to present an interactive standards-based social studies curriculum centered on the life and presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. The project is one of three that CIC has helped create that demonstrates the educational potential of cable's resources, says CIC spokesman Carol Vernon. Project partners Time Warner Cable, C-SPAN and Project VIEW of the Schenectady, N.Y., City School District have contributed resources in the form of broadband capabilities, content and video-conferencing expertise.