ATLANTA-- Sprint Nextel now serves more than 1 million voice-over-IP customers through its cable TV partners, the company announced today. In addition, the company is adding new cable companies to its partner roster, including WEHCO Video, NPG Cable and Shrewsbury Electric and Cable Operations.

Separately, the company's CEO, Gary Forsee, said at the NCTA show here that Sprint is adding cable partners to its fixed mobile-convergence partnership and will roll out service over a national footprint in 2007.

"We are pleased with the progress" of that partnership, Forsee said at a press conference following his appearance on a CEO panel. "We have been in get-ready mode."

The service is being trialed in Portland, Ore., Raleigh, N.C., and Austin, Texas, and will be rolled out on a trial basis in New England in the third quarter, he said.

Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, which is one of Sprint's wireless partners, said the companies have "100 people meeting weekly working on the back-office side of this--the unsexy stuff--so we can bring products out" that take advantage of full service integration. "This is not a marketing bundle," he said.

On the VoIP side, Sprint's subscribership has quadrupled and the company generated $100 million in revenue from the cable deals in 2005. That number will hit $1 billion by 2009, Sprint is forecasting.