Comcast's on the line

Having swiped millions of customers from telephone companies, Comcast Corp. says it plans to jazz up the boring-as-dirt home phone.

Comcast's first enhancement to its phone service - which is being tested in the Coatesville area - pops the number of an incoming call onto PCs and TVs. It will be offered free to Comcast phone customers, beginning later this year.

So behold couch potatoes, you no longer have to leap from comfy seats to check who's ringing.

And, Dorothy, it gets better. For those glued to the latest "Lost" episode, or other favorite show, Comcast has programmed the TV remote with an I-Don't-Want-To-Talk-With-You-Now button. This sends a caller to voice mail with a click.

The Philadelphia company's strategic zag toward landline phones, which some view as a dying business, comes as dazzling new wireless products like iPhone excite consumers.

For the most part, Comcast has watched the wireless boom from the sidelines.

And now the Philadelphia company, with 24 million pay-TV customers, says it can build revenue and customer loyalty by seamlessly linking a home's TV, phone and PC.

"We want to own the customer experience on the phone," Catherine Avgiris, who runs Comcast's phone business of 5.6 million landline customers, said in a recent interview.

"You have to continue to drive value into the base product and then find those premium products that customers are willing to pay extra for," she said.

Launched in June 2005 in the Boston area, Comcast Digital Voice could be the third-largest landline phone provider in the nation by early 2009, Avgiris said. It's currently the fourth. The incumbent giants ahead of it: AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc.

Telephone companies haven't advanced the legacy cash cow businesses as they've expanded their wireless networks, Comcast officials say, opening the door for the cable giant.

Comcast calls the new service Universal Caller ID. In reality, it's not exactly a cutting-edge concept. Verizon demonstrated in 2001 that it could display the number of an incoming call onto a PC screen. The Verizon service costs $5 a month.

Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe said he expects pay-TV and phone companies to add enhancements to TVs, PCs and phones because of new digital technology.

"It will be interesting to see whether customers find it valuable or whether they are annoyed by a phone call interrupting their TV show," Rabe said of Comcast's phone enhancement.

Gus Ankum, senior vice president of QSI Consulting Inc. a telecom and economic consulting firm, said Comcast can't keep doing the "same-old same-old" as the telecom industry develops new products on other technology platforms. "You have to innovate and offer things that you think will work," he said. The add-on products could help keep customers, he said.

Craig Moffett, telecom analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. L.L.C., said the landline business is shrinking "but that only means that it's more important than ever that cable companies press their technology advantage over telephone companies in order to make the service more compelling to today's consumer."

The landline business, Moffett said, "is still a remarkably profitable service."

Comcast has other enhancements coming, too.

It's testing a cordless home phone that interacts with Comcast e-mail and accesses an online contacts directory. It's also testing an online interface, called the Smart Zone Communications Center, that will allow Comcast customers to listen to phone voicemail, or program their DVR, on their personal computer.

"Competition breeds innovation," Avgiris said. "I think our video product is better than it was three years ago when there weren't other competitors. We have to make our phone product better, or why would anybody switch," she said.

Rob O'Sullivan, 34, a vice president of advanced services in Comcast's Oaks, Montgomery County, division office, is both developing the new caller ID service and testing it in his home. He said the one change Comcast engineered into Universal Caller ID during the test phase was shrinking the TV pop-up box with the incoming call number.

O'Sullivan said the project has broader impact as it shows how the company can link the services on the Comcast network.

"When you eliminate the boundaries between services," he said, "the possibilities for new services is limitless."