Ready for IP: Cox Touts Virtues of Its Coax Network

As the industry continues to flirt with IPTV technology, Cox has decided to renew its vows with its faithful, reliable squeeze of the past decade: the HFC plant. At an analyst roundtable in Philadelphia yesterday, Cox executives said they are looking into IPTV platforms, but said they aren’t different enough or cheap enough yet to draw the MSO’s interest. "Right now, we don’t see it," said svp, strategy and development Dallas Clement. "IPTV is just another delivery mechanism… We’re investing in the applications. It’s all about the applications." Cox said it has the capability of competing with Verizon and DBS by freeing up enough bandwidth on its HFC plant to launch HDTV channels (as many as 75 by 2010), on demand applications and digital simulcast. "We’ve yet to unleash the power of the network," CTO Chris Bowick said. One of the areas Cox is most keen on exploring is switched digital broadcast technology, which will allocate the most bandwidth resources to the most popular channels. By 2010, it will to use free up bandwidth by using digital simulcast, MPEG 4 compression and a 750-to-860 MHz platform. Areas to Watch: Don’t look for Cox to drop its price to compete with discounted DSL and DBS offers, focusing instead on its product bundles and targeted marketing strategies. "It’s not all about price," svp, marketing Joe Rooney said. Its 1Q numbers support that strategy, as it gained more new service RGUs than basic customers for the first time. It posted a 22.8% jump in digital subs, a 10% jump in cable modem subs and a 41.2% jump in phone subs.