Cable television giant Cox Communications unveiled a Wi-Fi network for its high-speed Internet customers covering portions of northern Virginia. The service will be available for free to customers subscribing to the company’s Preferred, Premier and Ultimate tiers of service.
Cox said the network currently includes 750 hotspots scattered throughout Fairfax County and Fairfax City, with advertised download speeds of up to 15 megabits per second and upload speeds up to 4 Mbps. Customers will be able to connect up to three devices per user ID and up to 10 devices per account at one time.
Cox had previously dabbled in the cellular space, launching a branded wireless service in late 2010 through a roaming agreement with Sprint Nextel. The company was looking to expand that service using its own spectrum and infrastructure, but eventually shuttered that service early last year having found little traction in the market. The company at one point said it was trialing LTE services using its 700 MHz spectrum holdings with equipment from Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent in an attempt to offer mobile broadband services.
Cox eventually sold off most of its licensed spectrum assets to Verizon Wireless in a deal valued at $315 million, though it maintain control over 12 megahertz of licensed spectrum in the 700 MHz band. As part of the deal, Cox and Verizon Wireless also announced plans to resell each other’s residential and commercial products and services through their respective sales channels. Cox will also hold the option to sell Verizon Wireless’ services on a wholesale basis.
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