Following the failed launch of Pivot, a joint venture with cable providers Comcast, Time Warner and others, the Wall Street Journal is reporting Cox has plans to build and launch a new cellular network on its own. In a market dominated by four major players surrounded by various regional carriers and MVNOs snatching up crumbs at their feet, Cox is planning to enter a highly competitive space that is historically a tough nut to crack. Beyond that, it will be a very expensive endeavor — according to the report, Cox’s network will operate on a portion of the spectrum it purchased along with other Cable providers back in 2006. In other words, we’re not just looking at a series of licensing deals with established carriers.
As far as differentiating factors that could lead to success, Cox seems to be eying mobile TV (not a great idea), an app store (better idea) and service bundles (excellent idea) as strong sales tools when launch time comes. As the third largest cable provider in the country, Cox will presumably offer its customers discounted wireless service alongside TV, broadband internet and VoIP services. Forget the triple play offers you’re spammed with now… Apparently it’s quadruple play time. The WSJ article lines up with earlier reports of Cox’s interest in a solo cellular venture that surfaced back in October of last year, so it looks like we could be seeing movement from Cox pretty soon. The more the merrier, we suppose.
Thanks, Elliott!
