Cox to launch cellphone service

USA TODAY, October, 2008 by David Lieberman

NEW YORK -- Cox Communications plans to rock the wireless phone business today by unveiling plans to launch cellphone service in the second half of 2009 that ultimately will make the No.3 cable operator a rival of AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Verizon.

"We've spent $500 million buying wireless capacity in our markets," President Pat Esser says. "Now, we're going to turn it on."

It's the most ambitious effort yet by a cable operator to bundle wireless phones with TV, Internet and land-line phone services. Operators have long seen cellphones as an important weapon to compete with AT&T and Verizon, which are rolling out TV services that compete with cable's core video business.

Cable operators' efforts to forge alliances with Sprint stumbled over...