Cox Wireless to abandon 3G network build in favor of Sprint Nextel wholesale agreement

Cox Wireless’ ambitious plans have taken a detour as the carrier has decided to abandon plans to build out its own 3G network in favor of relying on a wholesale agreement with Sprint Nextel Corp. (S).
The company said the move will help it focus on its plans to expand wireless services to more than 50% of the cable television footprint of its parent company Cox Communications.
“We believe this approach is good for our customers, allowing us to take the necessary steps to fulfill our promise to deliver a Cox experience that customers expect from us,” the company noted in a statement. In continuing with our successful wholesale model for 3G wireless services, we will accomplish speed to market while achieving greater operational efficiencies from a wholesale model that continues to improve. We are proud of our initial success with wireless, already nearly doubling our projected subscriber forecast.”
Cox Wireless officially rolled out its wireless service late last year nearly two years after announcing its wireless intentions and a year behind schedule.
Cox was using its AWS spectrum holdings for its CDMA network that was supplied by Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. The company then relied on Sprint Nextel for nationwide coverage. Cox owns 12 megahertz of spectrum licenses covering 76% of its wireline footprint.
Cox Wireless has rolled out services to a handful of markets, including Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla.; Hampton Roads, Va.; Omaha, Neb.; Orange County, Calif.; and most recently in parts of New England and Ohio.
The company has also said it was looking at trialing LTE services using equipment from Alcatel-Lucent, though there was no word from the company as to whether those plans were being impacted by the 3G decommissioning plans. Sprint Nextel has recently said it would be interested in adding network partners to its comprehensive Network Vision plan that will see the carrier update virtually all the infrastructure across its network.
The move to launch its own network has been questioned by many who have noted the billions of dollars required to manage and maintain a mobile network. Many of Cox’s cable brethren have bypassed building out their own networks for now and have instead relied on going to market as a mobile virtual network operator, many of which focused on mobile data services using Clearwire Corp.’s WiMAX network.
Last month Cox promoted Kelly Williams to VP of its wireless operations, taking over for Stephen Bye who left the company earlier this year to join Sprint Nextel as VP of technology development.