Cox Begins Testing Wireless Network In Three Markets

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Cox Begins Testing Wireless Network In Three Markets

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Cox has rolled out its first wireless network in three markets to complement its wired TV, telephone and internet services business. The network launches at a super-competitive time, where even well-established operators, like Sprint (NYSE: S) and T-Mobile, are struggling to add subscribers, and consumers are fleeing to low-end options, like prepaid.

A test group of customers in Hampton Roads, Va., Omaha, Neb., and Orange County, Calif. will first have access to the network before Cox expands more broadly in 2010. Cox did not say how much the service costs or what phones will be offered to customers. It also did not say what customers will do if they leave their service area, but presumably, they’ll fall-back on Sprint’s network, as announced previously. Release.

To support the roll-out in these three cities, Cox will open a “new retail experience” in the markets and will grow its workforce by about 20 percent throughout its retail locations.

Cox said that they are building the network because their customers asked them to. Pat Esser, president of Cox Communications: “More than forty percent of our residential customers trust us to be their telephone service provider and two-thirds of our subscribers take all three of our existing services…We’re excited to let consumers know that they will soon have a better choice for wireless service.”

Cox is one of the few cable operators that have decided to acquire spectrum and build-out a network of their own. Other operators, like Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) and Bright House, have decided to partner with Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR) to offer wireless broadband.

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By Tricia Duryee