Cox cable to set up cellphone network

Cable TV provider Cox Communications plans to have its own cellular network up and running next year, a move that intensifies cable's competition with phone companies.

Cox had signaled an interest in building a wireless network by spending $550 million on licenses to use the airwaves. But such spectrum purchases don't always lead to the building of a network, and privately held Cox hasn't previously detailed its plans.

The Atlanta-based company plans to build its own network in its cable service area, and partner with Sprint Nextel for roaming outside those areas. Cox's spectrum licenses cover the areas around Atlanta, New Orleans, San Diego, Omaha and Las Vegas as well as much of Kansas and southern New Mexico. Those areas have about 23 million people.

Wireless phone service will add to Cox's video, phone and Internet services to head off competition from telcos like AT&T and Verizon, which already have wireless and are adding video.

Cox, which has 6 million customers, appears to be the only major cable company that is building its own cellular network right now, but it's an area where the cable industry has long been involved. Cox itself built and operated a cellular network covering Southern California and Las Vegas in the 1990s, then sold it to Sprint in 1999. Comcast, the country's largest cable company, also owned a wireless network in the '90s and had ties to Sprint.

The cable companies teamed up with Sprint again in 2005 to market wireless service to their video customers, but the project was scuttled this year.

Generally, wireless carriers are struggling with getting fast fiber-based data connections to their cellular towers. They need the fiber to handle higher wireless data speeds used by smart phones like the iPhone and wireless laptop cards. Even though Cox can use its dense fiber network for its cell towers, the cost of building a wireless network will be at least hundreds of millions of dollars.

Other cable companies also have their fingers in wireless. Rather than building their own wireless networks, Comcast and Time Warner Cable are investing along with Sprint in a venture that is building a network based on WiMax, a new wireless data technology. Cablevision is building its own wireless network, but it's a less ambitious project than Cox's. It's using free airwaves and Wi-Fi technology to create a mesh of Internet "hot spots" over its cable service area. (info from The Associated Press)