Operators Going Slow on Pivot Wireless

Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, Advance/Newhouse Part of Joint Venture with Sprint Nextel

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, June 20, 2007

Orlando, Fla. -- Executives from Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable indicated that they’re taking their time ramping up Pivot-branded mobile-phone service through their joint venture with Sprint Nextel.

Cox president Pat Esser described some initial challenges in rolling out the Pivot service speaking on a CEO panel here at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ Cable-Tec Expo 2007.

“We’re probably slow-go on this because we don’t want to mess up the customer relationship,” Esser said, adding, “We could go faster.” Cox currently offers mobile-phone service in Phoenix, San Diego and Oklahoma.

The challenges, Esser continued, have included integrating Pivot's service and marketing elements with the rest of Cox’s operational systems. “We still have product-integration issues we’re working through,” he said. “You don’t just get into this business in 24 hours.”

For example, customer-service agents must tab to a different management screen to service Pivot customers, which Esser called “swivel-chair service” issues. He added that those issues will be resolved later this year.

Comcast has moved “several-thousand phones” in Boston and Portland, Ore., said John Schanz, the operator’s executive vice president of national engineering and technical operations, who spoke on a chief-technology-officer panel.

“We’re learning what consumers would like to see in a mobile product,” Schanz said.

Similarly, Time Warner Cable CTO Mike LaJoie said the operator lined up “several-thousand wireless customers” in the markets where it deployed Pivot, which include Raleigh, N.C.; Austin, Texas; and Cincinnati.

The fourth cable operator that’s part of the Sprint JV, privately held Advance/Newhouse Communications, has not commercially launched Pivot service. On the CEO panel, Bob Miron said the MSO is getting ready to put the product in one market, but he declined to identify it.

Sprint and the four cable companies announced their joint venture in November 2005. Comcast and Time Warner rolled out the Sprint-provided service in initial test markets late last year.

Meanwhile, Suddenlink Communications CTO Terry Cordova said that after the MSO completes rolling out voice-over-IP service this year across its footprint, it will take a look at potentially joining the Sprint JV.

“In 2008, for us, certainly the notion of being a part of the Sprint JV is on our list of things we want to be a part of,” he said.