TMCnet News
Cox Bringing VoIP to Five New Markets in 2005BY JOHANNE TORRES Cox Communications Inc. announced today that it will bring Cox Digital Telephone service to five new markets this year, upping the total markets served to 22 or 70 percent of the cable giant's total footprint. Cox’s digital phone service is based on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and is currently available in five of the cable operator’s existing telephone markets. The company will continue to use VoIP technology for all 2005 deployments. Cox has more than 1.3 million phone customers nationwide. Last year, the company added approximately 317,000 telephone customers in the US. In some communities, such as Omaha, Neb. and Orange County, Calif., 40 percent of consumers subscribe to Cox Digital Telephone, with 82 percent of their phone customers also electing Cox as their long distance service provider. Cox's telephone markets include: Orange County and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.; Omaha, Neb.; Meriden, Conn.; Rhode Island statewide; New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La.; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla.; Wichita, Kansas; West Texas (including five geographically dispersed locations: Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Abilene and San Angelo); and Hampton Roads, Roanoke and Northern Virginia. Today’s news follows growing speculation of the company’s CEO looking into possibly selling four cable operations serving about 900,000 subscribers in California, Texas, and North Carolina, to cover the operator’s emergent debt. Specifically, operations within the company’s West Texas, North Carolina, Humboldt County, and Middle America markets could possibly be up for sale soon by the cable giant. Cox Communications www.cox.com |