Comcast to sell to businesses, add jobs

Comcast to sell to businesses, add jobs

	Published : Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:45 By : Agencies Print this Story

PHILADELPHIA - The chief executive of Comcast Corp. said Tuesday that the 'next great business opportunity' lies in selling its Internet, voice and video services to small and medium-sized businesses -- setting a target of capturing 20 percent of the market in five years.

'There's very little to no competition today,' said Brian Roberts at the Citigroup Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Las Vegas. 'If you are a pizza parlor, you pretty much have one choice' in where to get telecom services, which is from the local phone company.

He said Comcast will go after businesses with fewer than 20 employees, of which 3 million are within or near the company's service area. These companies could yield $12 billion to $15 billion a year in additional business.

While Roberts expects to sell more Internet and phone service to business, he does see some taking cable TV, as well.

He also said the company's residential bundle of video, Internet and phone service for $99 a month for a year -- its triple play package -- will continue to drive growth in 2007. Roberts sees Comcast targeting the 23 million homes nationwide that can subscribe to its services but don't.

Currently, Comcast sells video to half of the households within its service area, high-speed Internet to 24 percent of homes and phone service to 4.5 percent of households. He wants to increase the penetration of phone service to 20 percent by 2009.

To attract more digital customers, Comcast plans to double its high-definition TV programming through video on demand in 2007.

'We think there is a lot of growth ... for the years ahead,' Roberts said.

In a decade or less, Robert sees half of Comcast's business as non-video.

Earlier Tuesday, Comcast said it will add 2,800 jobs this year in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Most positions will involve directly interacting with customers.

Comcast, the nation's largest cable operator, serves more than 24 million cable customers.

Shares of Comcast rose by 27 cents to close at $42.74 on the Nasdaq.