Cox has announced in a press release (PDF)Â that it will launch its own wireless service in 2009, first utilizing Sprint’s network to bundle branded services together in a quadruple-play package similar to the failed Pivot initiative launched in 2005 and subsequent collapse in 2007 with the provider winning 700Mhz spectrum in last year’s FCC auction.
The spectrum and network deployment will utilize the 700Mhz winnings to develop and expand 3G services while testing LTE for future deployment in tandem with the Sprint MVNO agreement.
The intent of the move is to position the company as a multiple service provider while being able to provide for services which have yet to materialize in the bundling space, such as real-time DVR access and scheduling over mobile devices and computers, live TV streams from the cable receiver to computers and phones, and real-time voicemail access without needing to learn multiple programs and esoteric computer setup.
Are they only going to resell in areas they currently serve cable services? It would make sense if they limit their service in these areas to avoid the huge overhead that ultimately caused the demise of Amp’d and sellout of Helio.
Cox is a local cable provider in parts of Southern Cali. Hopefully this will create new local jobs especially for current Sprint employees who need to get out.
Service will be initially sold through Cox’s existing cable network area. However, Cox intends to eventually grow beyond that.
The advantage of this approach, is that customers will avoid roaming on Sprint’s network once they have their towers deployed. This will reduce their costs (compared to an MVNO), without the loss of coverage.
I realize a lot of Cox’s plan appears to be confusing at the moment. However, it does appear to be a CDMA network compatible with Sprint, which will eventually be dual-band CDMA on the 1900/700 MHz networks… finally converting to LTE (700 MHz exclusively) once the technology is mature enough.
this sounds good because 3 or 4 years from now wimax wont cut it for phones so sprint could already have a relationship established and use the cox lte since the rest of the country and world will be using that
Celz, I doubt it would work that way. Sprint does not need to rely on (much less partner with) Cox, should they chose to switch to LTE.
Also, in “3 to 4 years” WiMAX will work quite well for phones, even for voice. There are already draft standards for VoIP on WiMAX… once Intel, Motorola, and the rest of the WiMAX forum embrace one… there isn’t any reason that WiMAX couldn’t be just as good of a mobile phone platform as LTE may become.
It’s a common misconception that WiMAX can’t handle voice. In the future… it will have more capacity for voice than CDMA could handle today. Right now, Sprint simply doesn’t need to, because they can dual-mode CDMA and WiMAX… since there’s CDMA coverage wherever Sprint will be deploying WiMAX over the next five years.
[…] AWS spectrum in 2008, with which it planned to roll out its own cellular network.The cable provider first began offering wireless service as a Sprint MVNO in 2009, leading up to the eventual rollout of its own […]