The Difference Between Offer And Provide

from the fun-with-numbers dept

Yesterday, there was a lot of attention paid to Comcast's decision to catch up to other US broadband providers and add a VoIP option to their list of services. In the announcement they focused on how this VoIP service would be offered to the 40 million homes they service. Most of the press picked up on that number and it became a big story. However, it looks like that 40 million is a bit misleading. Comcast may reach almost 40 million homes - but most of those only get cable TV service. Only 5.5 million currently receive broadband access from Comcast - which is a significantly smaller number. Obviously, the number of broadband subscribers will grow (perhaps rapidly) and offering a bundled VoIP offering could even help it grow - but it's a still quite far away from actually providing 40 million users VoIP. Technically, a company like Vonage could go out and claim that they're "offering" VoIP to a much larger audience - because Vonage can be used on almost any broadband line. It's all in the difference between "offer" and "provide." Update: Comcast is now backing off those numbers a little, saying that it really depends on how their tests go. In other words, it sounds like a situation where the press was doing the overhyping, not Comcast itself.