Time Warner Cable, the second-largest U.S. cable television operator, said on Wednesday that it was seeing “tepid” demand for its new wireless phone service, reports Reuters.
In November 2005, Time Warner Cable and rivals Comcast, Cox and Advance/Newhouse Communications joined a $200 million partnership with wireless company Sprint to compete more effectively against established phone companies.
The service is gradually rolling out under the “Pivot” brand in nearly 40 markets across the United States with various cable partners. But so far it has failed to drive significant demand as the fourth element of a “quadruple-play” offer.
Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Glenn Britt told reporters on Wednesday, “The broader point is whether people will really have a great desire to buy cell phone service from the people they buy wireline triple-play services from. There’s nothing in our market research or experience to indicate demand for that is overwhelming.”
Britt said Time Warner Cable had no plans to cut wireless from its package of services if demand remains weak, and that his company still had a good relationship with Sprint.
But Sprint Nextel acting CEO Paul Saleh on Thursday said the company will halt the rollout of the Pivot mobile-phone service, saying the product remains “very complex to provision.”
In a related note, 75-year-old Mona “The Hammer” Shaw, evened the score at her local Comcast office. After adding insult to injury after Comcast screwed up her “triple play” phone service she took matters into her own hands.
Hammer time.
Shaw storms in the company’s office. BAM! She whacks the keyboard of the customer service rep. BAM! Down goes the monitor. BAM! She totals the telephone. People scatter, scream, cops show up and what does she do? POW! A parting shot to the phone!
“I scared the tar out of some people, at least,” she says. “It had never occurred to me to take a hammer to a phone company before, but I was just so upset. . . . After I hit the keyboard, I turned to this blonde who had been there the previous Friday, the one who told me to wait for the manager, and I said, ‘ Now do I have your attention?’ “
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