Verizon to buy Cox's AWS spectrum for $315M

            

Cox Communications said it will sell 20 MHz of its AWS spectrum covering 28 million POPs to Verizon Wireless for $315 million.

The deal comes two weeks after Verizon agreed to pay $3.6 billion for the nationwide AWS spectrum licenses held by SpectrumCo, a joint venture of cable companies Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. Cox said the deal does not include its 700 MHz spectrum licenses, the company's Cox Wireless customer accounts or any other assets. However, Cox spokesman Todd Smith told FierceWireless the deal includes all of Cox's AWS spectrum licenses.

Additionally, just as in the SpectrumCo deal, Cox and Verizon Wireless will also become agents to sell each other's residential and commercial products and services through their respective sales channels. Over time, Cox said it may have the option to sell Verizon Wireless' services on a wholesale basis, something Comcast and Time Warner have said they will do. Cox also said it expects to enter into arrangements with the innovation technology joint venture formed by Verizon Wireless, Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House to better integrate wireline and wireless products and services.

The Cox-Verizon deal is subject to regulatory approval and while Smith declined to give a specific timeframe he said "we're obviously working hard to make it happen as soon as possible." A person familiar with the SpectrumCo-Verizon deal who asked to remain anonymous told FierceWireless earlier this month that the regulatory review for that deal is expected to take six to nine months.

Taken together with the SpectrumCo deal, the Cox AWS spectrum could give Verizon, the nation's largest carrier, an even greater spectrum advantage over its rivals if the deals approved. The SpectrumCo deal would give Verizon a total of around 110 MHz of nationwide spectrum. Verizon has said it plans to use AWS spectrum to supplement its 700 MHz spectrum for its LTE network, thereby providing additional capacity for LTE traffic. 

The deal also signals the unwinding of Cox's independent wireless position; in November, Cox said it would abandon its wireless service offering by the end of March, effectively killing a year-long experiment by the MSO to build its own wireless network and provide wireless as part of a quad-play bundle.

In 2006, Cox teamed with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Sprint Nextel as the SpectrumCo joint venture to bid on AWS spectrum licenses during the FCC's Auction 66. (Sprint exited SpectrumCo in 2007.) SpectrumCo in 2006 spent $2.4 billion on licenses covering most of the populated areas of the United States. In November 2008, Cox exited SpectrumCo (according to this FCC filing) and took with it 31 AWS licenses in parts of California, Georgia, Oklahoma, the Southwest and elsewhere.

Comcast to sell Verizon Wireless products in 4 markets in early 2012

Comcast president Neil Smit confirmed during a UBS investor conference on Monday that his company will begin to bundle Verizon Wireless products with its services in early 2012. Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks announced late last week that Verizon Wireless had agreed to purchase spectrum from SpectrumCo, joint venture created by the three firms, for $3.6 billion. Verizon Wireless will use the spectrum to build out its 4G LTE wireless network and agreed to allow each company to sell its products and services through wholesale channels. Smit told Reuters that Comcast will still compete head-to-head with Verizon Wireless’s parent company, Verizon Communications, which owns the 55% of the carrier in a joint venture with Vodafone. Time Warner Cable CFO Irene Esteves said Time Warner Cable will also sell Verizon Wireless’s current products very soon but she was not specific which products TWC plans to sell.

Verizon scores new spectrum from SpectrumCo in the tune of $3.6 billion

Verizon has a pretty serious head start in the LTE race. To make sure it stays at the front of the pack, Big Red has entered an agreement with SpectrumCo (a joint venture between Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House) that sees 122 AWS spectrum licenses transferred to the carrier for $3.6 billion and some commercial agreements. The deal will allow the companies to become authorized retailers for each others products, eventually giving the cable companies the ability to offer Verizon Wireless service as wholesalers. For its part, the House that Droid Built scores a boat load of new spectrum that may become crucial in expanding its network and ensuring that speeds don't drop off significantly as more customers transition to 4G. Check out the full PR after the break.

Update: Wondering how this impending love affair affects Comcast and Time Warner's existing deals reselling Clear's mobile broadband? Per CNET, not great, as the duo will gradually shift those using the WiMax provider to alternatives in the next six months.

Cox Communications abandons wireless service

Cox Communications said it will abandon its wireless service offering by next March, effectively killing a year-long experiment by the MSO to provide wireless as part of a quad-play bundle. The decision is another blow to cable companies' attempts to make inroads in the mobile market.

Cox said that starting today it will stop selling wireless service but continue to offer support. On March 30 Cox will discontinue the service. Earlier this year Cox abandoned plans to build its own wireless network and has been operating as an MVNO of Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) since November 2010.

To help ease the transition to other carriers, Cox said all of its wireless customers will receive a $150 credit on their bill for every line of wireless phone service disconnected. The company said customers can keep their wireless devices and that all early termination fees will be waived.

In a statement, Cox said it was killing its wireless service for several reasons, including "the lack of wireless scale necessary to compete in the marketplace, the acceleration of competitive 4G networks as well as the inability to access iconic wireless devices." privately-held Cox never revealed how many wireless customers it had. The service was bundled with its other offerings and the company had launched wireless service in less than 50 percent of its total footprint. Cox said none of its other services, including TV and broadband, will be affected by the move.

Cox isn't the only cable company to fail to make inroads into the wireless market. Time Warner Cable and Comcast which are wholesale customers of Clearwire's (NASDAQ:CLWR) mobile WIMAX network, have repeatedly said that wireless has been an exceedingly small part of their overall business. Indeed, Time Warner has said that wireless demand is tepid at best.

It is unclear what will become of Cox's wireless spectrum. In 2006, Cox teamed with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Sprint as the SpectrumCo joint venture to bid on AWS spectrum licenses during the FCC's Auction 66. (Sprint exited SpectrumCo in 2007.) SpectrumCo in 2006 spent $2.4 billion on licenses covering most of the populated areas of the United States. Then, in March 2008, Cox separately purchased around two dozen 700 MHz licenses in parts of Florida, Virginia, the southwest and elsewhere for $305 million as part of the FCC's 700 MHz spectrum auction, dubbed Auction 73.

In an interview with FierceWireless in June, Kelly Williams, Cox's vice president of wireless products and operations, said that having spectrum gives the company options other carriers without spectrum do not have." [S]o we're taking a look at a whole variety of potential approaches to providing 4G service," he said. "That being said, we're still really in the middle of a lot of discussions with a lot of different entities, and doing strategic work internally, so it's difficult for me to really comment beyond that. But [our] spectrum could play a role in how we bring 4G to market."

"We don't believe this decision has any new impact on our 700 MHz and our AWS spectrum. We remain in full compliance with FCC spectrum requirements," Cox spokesman Todd Smith told FierceWireless. "We understand the importance of wireless to the customer experience and are looking at several options to fulfill this need. We will share more information at a later date."