Cable Operators Pivot Away

Time Warner, Comcast, Cox Exit Wireless Joint Venture With Sprint Nextel

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 4/23/2008 2:16:00 PM

Cable, apparently, couldn’t turn the pivot.

Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications have decided to end their mobile phone joint venture, under the Pivot brand, with Sprint Nextel.

Comcast spokesman John Demming said the nation’s largest operator stopped selling the Pivot service yesterday. He said communications will be sent out over the next few weeks, telling customers they have the option to be migrated over to a Sprint Nextel wireless plan, with comparable minutes and pricing. 

Consumers availing themselves of that option will retain their handset and phone number. Such transitions are expected to be completed this summer.

Subscribers also can elect to drop their plan without incurring an early termination fee, according to Comcast.

Meanwhile, after this story was posted, the Web site Gigaom.com reported that Comcast has quietly created a new wireless division and hired former Telefonica O2 Europe chief technical officer Dave Williams as its CTO. Demming confirmed that Williams joined the company about a month ago, as senior VP of wireless technology strategy, but said no wireless division had been created. 

Comcast has long said it was exploring its options regarding wireless and that Williams brings strong technological expertise along those lines, Demming said.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, for example, told Wall Street analysts last October “you have a definition of wireless and what is [the] strategic implication to a cable company is not perfectly clear. We continue to assess it.”

Time Warner Cable spokesman Alex Dudley said that the No. 2 cable operator would begin notifying customers over the next couple of weeks, with an eye toward moving the subscribers to a Sprint mobile plan “post-haste.” 

Cox spokesman David Grabert said the operator will be notifying its Pivot customers shortly about their options. 

"We learned a lot through the experience and remained committed to wireless," he said, pointing to Cox Wireless' successful bid in the recent government 700-Megahertz wireless-spectrum auction. "We want to offer our customers mobility -- stay tuned."

A Sprint spokeswoman said “just because we’ve discontinued Pivot that doesn’t mean we’re not continuing to move forward with wireless with cable. We're trying to develop alternate business structures."

The wireless JV, which also includes Bright House Networks -- officials didn't return phone calls -- was formed in fall 2005, with an eye toward giving cable a “quadruple” play option. The idea add mobile to their respective bundles of video, high-speed data and voice products.

However, the product proved cumbersome to integrate, market and, ultimately, tough to sell.

Demming said there was a number of complex operational issues that made it difficult to move the product. “[Pivot] didn’t provide Comcast with the flexibility it needed for a national wireless service. We continue to explore wireless solutions,” he said.

Comcast, like the other partners, declined to disclose their Pivot subscriber rolls. Comcast had been proffering the service in the northwest in Portland, Ore. and southwestern Washington. Back in the northeast, Pivot was available in Comcast service areas in Massachusetts, Connecticut and southern New Hampshire.

Cox offered Pivot in Arizona, New England, Northern Virginia and Oklahoma City, as well as in San Diego and Orange County, Calif.

Last fall, it was announced that Pivot wouldn’t play past the 33 markets where it was available at the time, and was only available in about 20% of Sprint retail outlets. Pivot was scheduled to be sold in 40 markets by the close of 2007.

Subsequently, Sprint removed the product from its stores.

The aforementioned cable companies remain partners in SpectrumCo, which acquired Advanced Wireless Services spectrum in a Federal Communications Commission auction in 2006. Sprint sold its 5% interest in SpectrumCo in 2007.

Sprint Nextel still has a number of other business ties to cable, relative to VoIP services, backhaul and access applications. The telco's cable clients include Time Warner Cable and Suddenlink Communications.