Cox Communications will bring its VoIP service to five new markets this year, announcing that Cox Digital Telephone will be available in Las Vegas, Macon, Ga., Topeka, Kan., and its markets in Central Florida and the Gulf Coast area of Florida. Those additions bring Cox’s voice markets to 22, which is 70 percent of its existing footprint, the company announced.

Cox was the most aggressive of the cable companies in deploying voice over traditional TDM architecture, but has now shifted to bringing new markets on line via VoIP.

Cox Digital Telephone is a primary line replacement service, with E911 capabilities and battery back-up provisions built in. It currently offers voice service to more than 1.4 million residential customers and 140,000 businesses. Its current markets include Orange County and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Omaha, Neb.; Central Connecticut.; Rhode Island statewide; New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La.; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla.; Wichita, Kansas; West Texas (including five geographically dispersed locations: Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Abilene and San Angelo); and Hampton Roads, Roanoke and Northern Virginia.