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Comcast Challenges Telcos With Plans for Internet Phone Service: Page 2 of 3

Also attractive to both industries is the ability to sell larger bundles of services to subscribers, making them less likely to jump to competitors. Cable and telephone companies today offer packages in which the services are less than if they were bought separately.

"The bundling trend is more of a forced trend than anything else," Brian Washburn, telecommunications analyst for Current Analysis, said. "You'd have to be crazy to give up the price differential that cable and telephone companies are offering with bundles."

Also helping to push Comcast and other cable operators into the telephone market is the emergence of Internet phone companies, such as Vonage, which is offering their service over cable company's high-speed networks.

"What Comcast is doing is very necessary," Washburn said. "If they don't, then the Vonages of the world are going to do it for them. They're going to ride on Comcast's networks and grab the money."

Nevertheless, it's still unclear whether consumers will be willing to move from their reliable telephone companies to a cheaper, but less dependable, VoIP service from cable operators. The latter service, for example, doesn't operate during power outages, and 911 emergency services are not always available at the same level as traditional phone services.