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What happened to Cox Cable’s mobile phone service?

March 24th, 2010, 7:12 am by

March is almost over and the “unbelievably fair” mobile phone service from Cox Communications has failed to make its debut in Orange County, which was one of three regions nationwide picked for the cable TV provider’s mobile debut.

The launch has been delayed indefinitely, said Lana Ong, the spokesperson for the local Cox operation.

“We didn’t launch Cox Wireless widely to the public on March 8 because we are taking a very deliberate approach to introduce new products and services to the marketplace to ensure an experience that customers expect from Cox,” she replied.

She continues, “We realize many customers were looking forward to it however, the most important thing to note is Cox is putting the final touches on the Cox Wireless experience. Holding true to our customers is our number one priority and Cox Wireless will be here soon.  We’re asking that interested customers visit unbelievablyfair.com if they want to be the first to learn more about Cox Wireless – and don’t renew that contract!”

That’s a tough request, even for people who can’t wait to ditch their own wireless provider.

At this point, all we know is that Cox was building a mobile-phone network that uses Sprint’s CDMA 3G network. It would do away with overage fees, vanishing minutes and other consumer outrages. You don’t have to be a Cox TV subscriber. The company even produced commercials about it, which it’ll have to reshoot since they tout a March launch.

Orange County was one of three regions picked to be the first to get service. Hampton Roads, Va. and Omaha, Neb. were the other two areas.

Omaha, however, did launch, Ong said.

“While we don’t have a set date yet for our official wireless launch to the public, our Omaha system launched Cox Wireless in limited availability earlier this month,” she said.

In the mid 1990s, Cox tapped Omaha as a city it planned to launched cellular service using existing its fiber-optic cable network, according to a story in the Omaha World Herald. The service was pitched as something that would cost half the price of existing cellular service. The effort was later dropped.

Related stories:

Posted in: Cell phones • Video & TV • • • • • • • | 27 Comments »

Cox raising cable TV, HD and Internet prices in Orange County

January 29th, 2010, 1:42 pm by

Cox 2010 rate hikeCox Communications is raising the price of its major cable TV plans in Orange County between 3.6 to 10 percent, beginning March 1. And if you’re a premium movie subscriber or HD fan, expect your monthly bill to go up even higher. (Thanks to all the readers who wrote in about this.)

It’s not unexpected news as we’ve heard about TV price hikes from all the major providers in Orange County. Cox, which has its local headquarters in Rancho Santa Margarita, tends to increase prices in the spring.

“The main reason that our prices are changing is because of the rising costs of doing business. Cox is similar to a grocery store; we are a retail distributor of a wholesale product. Each year programmers like ESPN, CNN and MTV raise their costs, which then raises our costs to do business. We try to keep cable prices as low as possible, and while we absorb much of the increases incurred, we can’t absorb the full amount of fees we pay for the programmers. So, we have to pass on at least a portion of those increases to our customers,” said Lana Ong, a Cox spokeswoman.

Service 2009 2010 Change
Cox TV starter (broadcast) $20.00 $22.00 +10.0%
Cox TV essential (Broadcast, popular cable) $50.99 $52.99 +3.9%
Cox Advanced TV (Digital) $55.99 $57.99 +3.6%
DVR service $11.95 $9.99 -16.4%
HD tier $4.95 $5.50 +11.1%
Digital receiver $5.50 $5.50 0.0%
HD receiver $5.50 $7.50 +36.4%
HD DVR $5.50 $7.50 +36.4%
CableCard $1.99 $1.99 0.0%
1 premium movie $12.99 $14.00 +7.8%
2 premium movies $18.50 $21.00 +13.5%
3 premium movies $27.00 $30.00 +11.1%
4 premium movies $35.00 $38.00 +8.6%
ATV with 1 TV pak $62.49 $65.49 +4.8%
ATV with 3 TV paks $65.94 $68.94 +4.5%
ATV with 4 TV paks $68.94 $71.94 +4.4%
Internet (starter) $19.95 $22.99 +15.2%
Internet (value) 3 Mbps $28.99 $31.99 +10.3%
Internet (preferred) 10 Mbps $44.99 $46.99 +4.4%
Internet (premier) 20 Mbps $59.99 $61.99 +3.3%

The chart on the right details what services are going up. The complete document being mailed to Cox subscribers is available HERE. But what is going up?

■ HD TV service: Both the HD receiver and the HD DVR will now cost $2 more than non-HD versions. That’s a 36.4% increase. Also going up: the HD channel tier (with HDnet, HDnet Movies and HD Theater)  jumps 55-cents per month to $5.50.

■ Premium channels: If you thought spending $12.99/month on HBO was a lot, that price is jumping 7.8 percent to $14. Buy all four movie premiums — including Cinemax, Showtime and Starz — and the price goes up 8.6 percent to $38/month.

■ Basic broadcast cable: People on Cox’s cheapest TV plan, which includes only the local and broadcast channels, get a $2 price increase to $22, or 10 percent.

■ High speed Internet: There’s no escaping a fee increase if you’re a Cox Internet user. Prices for the starter service are going up $3/month to $22.99, or 15.2 percent. The fastest users get a 3.3 percent hike to $61.99/month. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • | 58 Comments »

Cox promises ‘unbelievably fair’ mobile service in March

January 14th, 2010, 8:32 am by

Cox wireless service begins in March 2010 in Orange County.Back in December, we learned that Cox picked Orange County to be one of three regions where it will first roll out wireless phone service. The service will begin in March 2010 and, as with any major move, a big marketing campaign begins this week.

In Cox’s ads, it promises “unbelievably fair” service and watching the commercial, that seems to say Cox is getting rid of surprise overage fees and vanishing minutes. Those interested can sign up on Cox’s new Unbelievably Fair web site to get notified (if you sign up and are a Cox TV customer, you’ll get a free movie on demand). You don’t have to be a Cox Cable customer.

cox-wireless2

The company expands further in a press release by pointing out how unfair it is that wireless phone customers have to pay for minutes in their plan that they don’t use. Cox’s research showed them that consumers want value and transparency in wireless plans.

It’s definitely a campaign of the 21st Century. Cox has set up a Facebook fan page to chat with customers Facebook to Facebook.

More commercials have been posted on Youtube.

Cox is also launching the mobile service this spring in Hampton Roads, Va. and Omaha, Neb.

More on Cox at the Gadgetress Cox Cable page. Recent news from Cox:

Posted in: Cell phones • Video & TV • • • • • • • • • | 7 Comments »

Cox getting EPIX movie channel in April

January 13th, 2010, 11:27 am by

Epix HD, a new movie channelNoted: Cox Communications is the latest to sign up to get EPIX, a newish HD network featuring movies from Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer STudios and Lionsgate. Cox plans to offer the channel as a movie tier to customers nationwide beginning in April 2010.

Cox customers in Orange County should get the channel at the same time as the rest of the nation, according to the local Cox folks.

A few EPIX movies coming in April include Star Trek, GI Joe, Paranormal Activity and the Tyler Perry film franchise.

EPIX launched in 2008 and signed up its first customer, Verizon FiOS, in July 2009. FiOS TV customers began receiving the channel in the fall. The three studios launched EPIX in early 2008 after pulling its movies from CBS-owned Showtime. Showtime wanted to cut the fees it paid to broadcast their movies.

Terms of the Cox deal were not disclosed.

Update, Jan. 14, 2010: EPIX also signs cable provider Mediacom (Paid Content)

Latest news on Cox:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • | 3 Comments »

Cox Cable: No price hikes planned for 2010 yet

December 16th, 2009, 2:54 pm by

Cox Cable logoCox Communications customers in Orange County can hang on to their money for just a bit longer. The Rancho Santa Margarita cable TV provider said that no cable price increases are planned for 2010. At least not yet.

“As far as rates, at this point Cox has nothing set in stone regarding rate increases in 2010,” said spokeswoman Lana Ong in response to my query about 2010 price increases.

December and January tend to be prime time to notify customers of upcoming rate hikes. During these months a year ago, Time Warner, AT&T U-verse and Cox all told customers monthly bills were going up.

So far, for 2010, Time Warner has notified customers that some will see their monthly bills increase a few dollars in January. See the earlier story: “Time Warner 2010 price hikes mostly affect those who order the least.”

More on 2010 price increases:

Of course, this doesn’t mean Cox won’t raise its rates in 2010. This year, the company upped rates in March. Last year, rates also went up in March. The official word today, however, is no increases are planned.

Cable providers are losing subscribers and not making as much money as they used to. A big reason for annual price increases is because the TV networks they offer are asking for more money themselves.

The nation’s largest cable company, Comcast Corp., took steps this month to offset some of those rising costs by buying a TV network. The deal, valued at $30 billion, will make Comcast the owner of NBC, which includes the channels such as USA, Bravo, SyFy, CNBC, MSNBC and Universal.

Currently, Time Warner is negotiating with News Corp. (Fox TV) and Scripps Networks Interactive (Food Network, HGTV). In an effort to publicize what it considers unfair price hikes for the channels, Time Warner launched a marketing campaign asking customers whether it should cave to the increases or get tough, even if it means losing the channel. While the campaign is obviously a marketing tactic, it attracted 400,000 consumers who told Time Warner to get tough.

Cox, meanwhile, just let go of the Travel Channel, selling most of it to Scripps Networks. Cox kept a 35 percent ownership.

For their part, both Orange County cable providers have added several new channels this year. Most recently, Cox customers should have seen 15 new HD channels show up this week. See the earlier story, “Cox adding 15 HD channels in December.”

Related stories:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • | 13 Comments »

Cox picks Orange County to launch mobile phone service

December 8th, 2009, 12:00 pm by

Cox Cable picks Orange County to launch mobile serviceIf you hate your cell phone service, a new player is coming to Orange County: Cox Cable.

The cable TV provider has been working on wireless service for a while but today it announced that Orange County residents will be one of the first three areas nationwide to get the service.

Very few details are available. Because of competitive reasons, Cox said it is unable to reveal pricing, launch date or types of phones that will be offered. While some local customers are getting the chance to play with mobile service as part of a test group, the full service will launch in 2010 to residents. Cox plans to offer the service to business users in the future.

“Right now, if Cox customers in Orange County are interested in Cox Wireless service they shouldn’t renew their wireless contract because it won’t be long before Cox introduces a better wireless experience in Orange County,” said Lana Ong, a spokesperson with Cox in Orange County.

Previously, the company said it plans to use Sprint’s mobile network to launch the first products. The company is also working on its own 3G wireless and 4G wireless networks. For the next generation of mobile service, or 4G, Cox has joined the Long Term Evolution crowd, which is also the technology of choice for AT&T and Verizon Wireless. See last year’s story on this, at “Cox Cable adding… mobile phone service?” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Cell phones • Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • | 34 Comments »

Cox working on restoring Internet outage

December 7th, 2009, 12:57 pm by

Cox CableInternet still on the fritz? Cox Communications in Orange County knows about it but you can still call if you’re experiencing Internet issues.

Most customers are already back online and the company is restoring service to the rest, said Lana Ong, a Cox spokeswoman.

“Last night, a software upgrade in our network, which is part of our routine maintenance, caused an unexpected outage for some Internet customers,” she said. “Engineers at both local and national levels began troubleshooting the event immediately.”

Reports of the outage began at 10:23 a.m., according to Cox. The company rebooted the system at 10:45, which restored service to most customers. Cox won’t disclose how many customers were affected.

“The duration of the outage lasted approximately 22 minutes and most customers were back online within 20 minutes. We are working as quickly as possible to restore services to the remainder our customers,” Ong said.

If you know a local Cox customer still experiencing Internet issues (since, presumably, they are unable to read this online report), you should call customer service at (949) 546-5955. Online help is also available through live chat or e-mail. Contact info is on this page.

Visit the Gadgetress’ special page for Cox customers at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/cox.

Recent Cox Cable stories:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Cox’s special TiVo adapters now available in O.C.

November 27th, 2009, 8:10 am by

Cox working with Motorola on TiVo adapter.UPDATE, 11/30/09: Cox confirms the tuning adapters are now available at Cox stores in Rancho Santa Margarita, Quail Hill and Laguna Niguel.
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After what was an apparently successful test run, Cox Communications has begun rolling out a special adapter for customers who prefer to record cable TV using a TiVo rather than a Cox recorder.

Thanks to reader Roger Elliott who spotted the message on the TiVo forums, Cox notified users this week that “Tuning Adapters are now available and are being offered to Cox Orange County and Palos Verdes / San Pedro Digital Cable customers with a CableCARD in a TiVo Series 3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL digital video recorders at no charge.”

I’m still waiting to hear officially from Cox. I’ll post any update here.

If you’re among those affected, another reader Michael Taube encourages you to get your adapter today. In an e-mail, Taube said this after getting his adapter:

“Well, I reviewed every single blessed HD channel Cox offers, now that I have my free, trusty Motorola Tuning Resolver (MTS). The picture quality on ALL HD channels is simply amazing! It makes my previous HD reception look positively awful. Please urge your TiVo audience to run, don’t walk, to their nearest Cox store to obtain their MTS. It makes a HUGE difference!”

Without such a device, TiVo users who rely on CableCARDs are unable to get several channels.

Since cable companies have limited space in the cable pipes to a customer’s home, they are trying to find new ways to squeeze more channels in the available space. Cox is using “switched digital video” technology to free up its broadcast stream for new HD channels. But it means some channels turn to on-demand status, making it impossible for CableCARD users to tune in.

The majority of customers probably won’t notice the change to switched digital. There could be a slight delay when selecting a switched channel, but just like an on-demand movie, the channel should tune in quickly. To see the channels affected, read the earlier story, “Cox moving 100 channels to on-demand format.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • | 10 Comments »

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