Cable looks to take piece of telehealth market controlled by telcos

Cable companies have, so far, outdone telecoms in the drive to get broadband into homes. In the process, they have managed to take a huge chunk of phone business, in the form of VoIP, away from the traditional landline providers.

Now, as they watch their basic video subscriber numbers erode (as they have every year since 2005), cable companies have begun to look at another telco stronghold--videoconferencing and broadband services--specifically in the health care segment, as a possible prescription to renew their vigor, Bloomberg reports today.

For years, that business has long been the bailiwick of telephone companies, especially AT&T (NYSE: T)--which sells through its AT&T ForHealth division-- and Verizon (NYSE: VZ)--which sells via its Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions.

But cable companies, worried that margins on their television business also are shrinking, aggressively have begun to sell broadband and videoconferencing to hospitals and doctors offices.

And, to a degree, they've already begun to make in-roads. Early earnings results showed just how much potential there was for cable companies in the sector.

After its business services revenue increased 37 percent in the fourth quarter, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) CEO Glenn Britt called it the MSOs "biggest success story." And, TWC doesn't expect that it was a one-shot deal: the company forecast the segment to grow as much as 30 percent through the entire year.

Cox said four-fifths of the estimated $460 million healthcare-related services market in its footprint currently is still controlled by telecom companies. The company said health care makes up just 10 percent of its overall revenue from business service, $100 million more than double what it had been a year ago. It, too, expects to see strong annual growth in the segment.

Can cable take the business away? Or at least capture enough of it to change the landscape?

The key is going to be offering products that focus on interoperability, something that increasingly is becoming a buzzword among vendors looking to make the technology ubiquitous. The offerings also will need to be easy to use, contain rich feature sets and be available at an affordable price.

A recent study among rural doctors in Australia showed they were eager to use the technology, but turned to Skype, generally, because they wanted touse something that was simple.

If the videoconferencing industry, with the help of a hungry cable industry looking for opportunities, is serious about democratizing videoconferencing so that it's no longer confined to boardrooms and supplied by a handful of vendors, those are some things to keep in mind.--Jim