Cox says it’s committed to 2009 cell phone launch

Cox Communications is working on its plan to offer cell phone service in Rhode Island, but officials remain tight-lipped about the details, a sign of the ongoing battle between Cox and Verizon Communications for local telecommunications customers.
Stephen Bye, vice president of wireless for Cox, during a recent telephone interview from his office in Atlanta declined to disclose when Cox would begin offering cell phone service in Rhode Island, which areas might receive the service first, and how much Cox will charge for it. Cox announced in October that it would be moving into the wireless market.
“We are going to be launching cell phone markets in 2009, and we’ve not disclosed the specific markets or the specific timeframe. But we will be launching it,” Bye said. The reason for such circumspection is competition. “It’s a very competitive market, we clearly don’t want to tip our hand to our competitors too early in the process,” he said.
Verizon and Cox are the two main providers of telecommunications services in the state. Verizon in recent months has been pushing its FiOS fiber-optic television service, challenging Cox’s near-monopoly on providing cable TV to Rhode Island residents. Verizon has R.I. Public Utilities Commission approval to offer FiOs to 29 of the state’s 39 cities and towns, and already is in 16 communities, with Cumberland, Lincoln, Central Falls and Pawtucket next on the list.
Verizon spokesman Phil Santoro, when asked about Cox’s foray into cell phone service, responded that “it’s about time. It’s good to see that Cox is trying to play catch-up. We’ve been offering quad play for quite some time. All we need to do is find the world’s best wireless network, which we already have.” Quad play refers to the offering of four services, for cable TV, Internet, land-line phone and cell phones.
Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst of the Leichtman Research Group, thinks business customers remain more important to Cox than residential consumers. With AT&T and Verizon as the two major cell phone companies in the U.S., “for Cox to establish themselves in the near term in that vein would be very difficult,” Leichtman said. “And I don’t think the goal is to do that. The goal is to complement their product offerings.”
He suggested that Cox’s move into cell phones is designed to secure the quad-play market in those local areas where the company already is strong, thereby eliminating the chances of successful competition from rivals like Verizon. “I see what Cox is doing more as a defense than an offense,” Leichtman said. “Their real offense is business.”
“The residential market as well as the business market are equally important for us as a service provider,” Bye said in response. “We’ve enjoyed good success in offering business customers services, whether it be high-speed Internet, voice or media services. So, we want to offer wireless to that segment as well as the residential market, where we have obviously enjoyed success as well.”
Asked what would be different about the Cox wireless service, Bye cited customer service and ease of use as two factors that his company is concentrating on. “We stand for customer service,” he said, “and the way in which you deliver the experience and the way in which you deliver the service are very important to customers. And making the service simple and easy and consistent is critical.”
Bye suggested that customers of other cell phone companies have not taken full advantage of various wireless capabilities, such as integrated voice mail, “because they’re complicated and difficult to use. Our plan is to make them simple and easy.” Cox has said that customers who sign on for quad play will be able to use their cell phones to program digital video recorders, watch TV shows and access information on home computers. “There’ll be better value in the bundle than the standard line offer,” Bye said.
Cox has said it has spent more than $500 million on the licenses and infrastructure needed to enter the wireless market in Rhode Island. Now in the process of building its own 3G – short for third-generation wireless network – Cox will use the Sprint Nextel network as well as its own 3G network. Cox has been partners with Sprint for many years, Bye said. “We’ll be using our network in some markets, and taking advantage of Sprint’s technology in other markets, so that our customers will be using our 3G network or Sprint’s, but it will be seamless to the customer.” &#8226