Cox to Launch Mobility Services

Cox Communications plans to launch mobile phone service in the second half of 2009, using Sprint network facilities. But Cox also owns its own spectrum and plans to build its own third-generation wireless network, although it also says it will test Long Term Evolution as an eventual 4G platform.

Cox executives say the management and delivery of converged content is at the core of the company's wireless strategy. "Cox customers will be able to use their mobile phone to access television favorites, program their DVR, access content saved on their home computer and simplify their lives with enhanced voice features," the company says.

A reasonable way forward would be for Cox to rely on Sprint for typical wireless voice, text messaging and mobile broadband services, while using its own network for applications more focused on content services related to what it currently delivers using its wired networks.

All Cox phones will include a network address book that automatically synchronizes with home PCs, the company says.

Cox also says that subscribers will be able to watch TV shows, and possibly full-time channels, on their handsets.

The move into mobility is hardly unprecedented. Cox joined with Comcast and Tele-Communications Inc. as equity owners in Sprint PCS in 1994.