CenturyLink ready to take on cable as Comcast, Charter emerge in SIP trunking segment

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) acknowledged that it is in a competitive battle with Comcast Business (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) and other cable operators in the SIP trunking segment of the business services market, as more enterprise customers ditch their TDM-based PRI lines and analog PBX's for IP-based hosted services. 

"We've seen a ton of competition from the cable companies on the hosted PBX or hosted VoIP side of the house, but on SIP trunking they have been slow to come into the marketplace because their product offering isn't quite there yet," said Ted Fitzgerald, manager of strategic voice products for CenturyLink, in an interview with FierceTelecom. "I definitely anticipate they are going to be a big player soon, but right now it's definitely the big three -- us AT&T, and Verizon and some of the smaller CLECs are the big competitors when it comes to RFP responses." Article