Cox Communications set to launch a cellular network
By Laura June 
posted April 8th 2009 3:13PM
posted April 8th 2009 3:13PM
Well, it's been a long time coming, and it probably shouldn't come as a surprise at this point, but Atlanta-based Cox Communications, the third largest cable provider in the United States, has announced plans to launch its own cellular network. We heard essentially the same news back in October of last year, but the company's reaffirming its commitment to do so by the end of 2009, almost certainly using its portion of the winnings from the 700MHz auction (estimated to be worth around $304 million dollars). Details such as pricing are still a mystery, but Cox's VP of its wireless division, Stephen Bye, said that the network will allow them to offer a bundled television, broadband and wireless service, that it hopes to focus on the burgeoning mobile video market, and that it may launch an app store in order to compete with "what's already out there." We wish them luck.[Via Phone Scoop]
A little late to the game I would say, but more competition is always a good thing for the customers.
Yay! More shitty service!
We should just use lasers to communicate... pew pew
My first thoughts were "Oh God no, please no"
Honestly, my local downstream channel gets so saturated during the evening that speeds are around 1-2 megabits at best. I talked with a number of people including some friends of mine online who are network engineers who agreed, and finally got them to get a plan in action to upgrade downstream capacity this month by adding a downstream channel or two.
Man, I really hate people like you. The service hasn't even come out and you assume it will be bad? If they work really hard to provide decent service to the end consumers, they can succeed
I have Cox at home and it's blisteringly fast, without any downtime. Your mileage may very depending on where you are, but in SoCal they're one of the best.
Maybe they can put a cap on your service.
Oh, the possibility of the slogans.
Put COX in your ear.
COX is in your pocket.
COX, we have the Largest network.
I'm sure the service will suck balls!
No sir, the service will suck COX.
Ouch! "Talk about a day late and a dollar short". If the cable companies want in on the mobility broadband bundling business, they should pool their collective Billions and BUY Sprint. Especially since they are the only major pure wireless operator in the US mobility business. Dano you listening? This would be good for you at Sprint as well...
You have a good point. Cox should as least form a partner as ATT did early on with Dish network to provide video until is completely rolls out U-Verse.
Cox would be the video arm to Sprint's mobile communications. The 700Mhz frequency can be used in conjunction to offer some other service.
@ Frankenstien I came here to say that
Will this be GSM or CDMA or base on something new?
Will text messages be 20 cents w/o a a text plan too?
How long will it take for COX to put up wireless towers, so there can be nationwide converage?
Say what you will about Cox, but i had them for 7 years in Florida (and just moved to Boston) - The speeds were fantastic; we signed up at the 4 megabit service for $45 monthly, and when i moved in December, i was pulling on average 33 megabits downstream. No shitty bandwidth caps or traffic shaping either!!
Now, i'm stuck here with Comcast at a similar price point...there's simply no contest, Cox is a FAR superior internet provider. I don't watch TV, so that part of the argument is irrelevant to me. That, or i could pay double what I pay now, and get FIOS, which is only SLIGHTLY faster than my old Florida cable connection.
LOLZ U HAD COX FER SEVEN YEARS!!!
I think its more funny that he has Comcastic now. Those commercials are ANNOYING!
COX isnt too bad, FIOS is better though.
Cox does have monthly traffic caps. They just don't enforce them... unless you're on the slowest plan that caps you to something insane like 4 GB/month. Then they shut your ass off and basically force you to upgrade. But yeah, if you have the "standard" Cox package (pun intended) then they are pretty forgiving. The cap is something like 40 GB/month but I've pulled 500 GB before without being shut off.
Cox can suck my...
Well, I'll be appropriate and simply say that I despise the entity known as Cox Communications and all of their crappy services.
Does anyone know what type of network this will be GSM, CDMA, WiMax, LTE? After hearing someone complain about the service of the big four I cant see why another carrier is a bad thing, lets just hope they get some cool phones.
more slogans
Cox we never drop the ball
Cox we never blow it
Everyone in your life could use more Cox
Cox, Can you feel me now?
your friends and family on Cox
I seem to recall earlier leaks saying they were going to start on CDMA and then migrate to LTE? But that seems kind of strange, to be honest.
If you can't get on my open wifi with your iPhone from the sidewalk on my street, I must need a more powerful router.
I have Cox (hee hee). The biggest downside I've seen so far is that around 8 p.m. my download speeds go from 9Mbps+ to around 2 - 3 Mbps, presumably because everyone else and their mom is currently using the internet. This slow speed is noticeable if I try to watch shows off Netflix instant watch or Hulu.
Some smaller downsides are the soft caps. I call them soft because I am a pretty big user of internet TV and I probably have gone over the caps several times and haven't heard a peep from them. Also, they throttle P2P with sandvine, but with a little tweaking of Azureus I can still get 100Kpbs+ downloads.
More wireless competition is certainly welcome. What I would really like to see is more fair competition for services inside the self-contained markets of ISPs. The providers seem hell bent to squash any competition for their television, telephone and other services by throttling data and applying caps while exempting their own services from the throttling and caps.
I have Cox in San Diego, and while the net connection is ok (20Mbps/1.75Mbps, down/up) for the $60/month top tier connection, I'd rather not see them add something else to the stupid "bundles." I ended up signing up for their crappy phone service to shave $20/month off my bill over not having it (I get TV through them too). I think cable needs some competition in general. Faster speeds, better TV choice (like not paying $70 for 500 channels I don't want and 20 I do want).
Cable has competition - its called satellite. We also have digital airwaves now, which means that some cable channels will probably be available over the air soon in certain markets. Frankly, I'm for ANYTHING that lights a fire under the cell cartel. I would not be at all surprised if Cox made a bid for Sprint. That would be lot of content for your Pre. Frankly, I just want to have a 3G CDMA tower near my house so I can dump AT&T like a hot rock.
Virgins and cox.
Cells multiply.
If their cell service is anything similar to their broadband it will be a major fail...
I am with you! I went both ways on Cox (hehe) for about 4 years. They refused to give me lube or anything. Now, I have FiOS and everything is as smooth as a glass ****** dipped in crisco. It's pretty fast too.
Haha... Cocks...
cox gives more head than an asian hooker!!!!!
I don't know whether or not this is going to happen but during the recent talks with cox about the internet contract they wanted to put a Cell transmitter on the premises since we are on the highest point on the island (this is a business location). I don't really know any more details than that though.
Huweii announced last week that that they would build for Cox an EVDO network that is LTE ready (i.e. upgradable to LTE via software upgrade.)
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/cox-goes-lte-ready-cdma-700-mhz-band/2009-03-30
anyone against more cellular competition can go $$!@# # #%@ and keep paying your $200 bills
i dont care how crap any new cell carrier is. we NEED competition in the states where we pay absurd amounts for cell service compared to the rest of the world
haha, woww, its gonna fail like any other small provider like Helio or Altell or any of the other ones, I forgot the other one, shit, but come on, its gonna be very limited coverage, and its, well its just not gonna work
I have Cox's digital cable + middle tier internet package because I have no choice, that is all my apartment complex offers. Never really have had an issue with them, zero downtime, fast speeds (powerboost rocks, 33mbps DL on speedtest) and their television services are okay, but their DVR's suck. I can't really tell if they are throttling my torrent download speeds...as of lately I have hit up torrents with maybe 8,000 seeds and 2,000 leeches, average 200kbps or less which is pathetic. When I first started their service I didn't have this issue, so maybe they have just recently started throttling downloads recently in my area.
But uh, wireless service? I hope they have a ton of towers established or a partnership with a larger carrier. Might not be bad if they actually bought Sprint, the amount of content they could deliver to devices could be quite impressive.
A total win if they subsidize the Nokia N97 IMHO... plz plz plz COX