Cox Communications Wireless Vice President Stephen Bye, talked with Fierce Wireless and defended the cable operator’s decision to plow full steam ahead with its own mobile wireless play in 2009.
During an interview with FierceWireless, Bye touched on subjects such as spectrum, Cox’s relationship with Sprint and how Cox is doing something different than what its cable brethren have done as part of a Clearwire WiMAX play.
Bye: One of the things we learned from the Pivot [the failed joint venture with Comcast, Cox, Time Warner Cable, Advance/Newhouse and Sprint Nextel] experience was that it is very important for us to have control. It’s very important to us to make sure that we have the infrastructure, the assets, the capabilities and control points.FierceWireless: But you’re still tied to cable through SpectrumCo, the joint venture with all the same players that spent $2.37 billion to buy 137 AWS licenses. Doesn’t this restrict your independence?
Bye: We recently filed with the FCC petitioning for that (AWS) spectrum (for which Cox paid $248.3 million) and transferring those licenses out of SpectrumCo and directly to Cox.
FierceWireless: So you’ll be using conventional licensed wireless spectrum for your 3G play? What happens to the 700 MHz spectrum you separately purchased–again, as a standalone entity–in another FCC auction?
Bye: Our networks will be using our AWS spectrum initially but we are looking to take advantage of our 700 spectrum. It’s a new band and the technology is still in its infancy but we’ll definitely take advantage of that as the ecosystem evolves around 700 MHz.
FierceWireless: How does Cox build out a wireless network?
Bye: We own some of our own towers that we lease to other cellular operators and we’ll be taking advantage of those assets. We have very deep fiber networks. We have existing call centers in all our markets. And in addition to the voice network, we have a very extensive IP core data network and we’ll be adding wireless to that as well.
FierceWireless: Will this network be a 3G, 4G or some kind of hybrid like Clearwire is doing with WiMAX and 3G?
Bye: We’re going to be launching with 3G. As we build our network it is with a view to 4G. Our 3G network is there to support what handsets are available today; 4G is still some time out there in the future… and we want to be on a path to get to 4G and minimize that investment to get there.
Related 700 MHz articles on Dailywireless include; Verizon Jumps LTE Rollout, Cox Plans 700MHz Phone Service, Motorola Tests 700 MHz LTE, White Spaces: Green Light from FCC Report, AWS: Strike Out for Comcast?, Embarq Buying Larger CenturyTel, FCC: What’s Wrong with 700MHz Public Service?, Public Safety: We Like 700MHz Public/Private Plan, Hearings on 700MHz Auction, T-Mobile Launches AWS in NYC, Canadian AWS Auction: Encouraging Competion, Free 2155-2175 MHz!, FCC Wants Cellular Alert System, 700MHz: Money Talks, Reed Hundt Talks, Congressional Fix for Universal Service, Verizon Makes its Move for Universal Service Fund, FCC Finalizes Rules on 700MHz: Limited Open Access, No Wholesale Requirement, Frontline: Out of Business
