Cable operator Cox to launch cellphone service
NEW YORK -- "We've spent $500 million buying wireless capacity in our markets," President Pat Esser says. "Now, we're going to turn it on."
It's the most ambitious effort yet by a cable operator to bundle wireless phones with TV, Internet and land-line phone services. Operators have long seen cellphones as an important weapon to compete with AT&T and Verizon, which are rolling out TV services that compete with cable's core video business.
Cable operators' efforts to forge alliances with Sprint stumbled over disagreements about marketing and service plans.
Cox is betting that it can lure consumers with one-stop shopping and a lot of hand-holding for a cellphone service that neatly meshes with its other products.
For example, subscribers will be able to use the phones to program home DVRs. They'll also be able to access e-mail and voice mail that they receive at home.
"The network address book has been around for a long time, but it hasn't gotten beyond sophisticated users who take the time and effort to configure it," says Stephen Bye, Cox vice president of wireless.
He says all Cox phones will include a network address book that automatically synchronizes with home PCs.
Cox also says that subscribers will be able to watch TV shows, and possibly full-time channels, on their handsets. The company wouldn't say what video will be available, how much consumers will pay for cellphone service, which markets will get it first, or how long it will take before it's available in all its territories.
Cox has 6.2 million residential and business customers scattered through 15 states, with major markets including San Diego, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Oklahoma City.
Esser won't say how much Cox will spend to enter the wireless phone business, but notes that it likely will be at least as much as it spent to offer digital TV, broadband and wire-line phones.
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