Last November Cox Communications finally launched their long-planned mobile phone service in portions of the Hampton Roads, Virginia, Omaha, Nebraska and Orange County, California markets. This week Cox is announcing plans to expand the wireless service into Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2008's 700 MHz Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum auction, Cox Communications won 14 Block A and 8 Block B licenses for bids totaling $304 million. Unlike Time Warner Cable and Comcast, Cox wasn't content with just piggybacking on Clearwire's network in order to offer the "quadruple play." As such, Cox is building their own network, with some markets riding on Sprint's network as the network expands. A private company, Cox hasn't unveiled subscriber numbers, only insisting the service "has been very well-received in the markets where we've launched already." Those interested can find pricing here.
As Time Warner has established that they will be selling their 4G RoadRunner services using Clearwires leased spectrum, and as Cox and Time Warner both cover San Diego County (split) with their existing TV cable, hard line internet access and VoIP, a quagmire exists because Cox acquired rights to the future 700MHz LTE wireless mobile services for that county while Time Warner would be dependent upon Clearwires 2.5GHz Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum for delivery of their mobile services. This means that in order for Time Warner to remain competitive within this market Clearwire will have to transition their EBS spectrum holdings from WiMAX to LTE... finally.