New survey results from Strategy Analytics suggests that 75% of existing broadband subscribers would be willing to switch to a new service provider. According to the findings, Time Warner Cable is most vulnerable to subscriber defections, while Cox has the most secure customer base. Telcos are vulnerable to competing services that offer faster speeds. The hypothesis is worth noting since pure growth in broadband appears to be slowing, so broadband service providers (BSPs) will increasingly be eyeing each other’s customers for subscriber growth.

The findings also identified customer service as having a growing importance for customers. "The implications for BSPs are clear," noted John Lee, Analyst in the Strategy Analytics Digital Consumer Practice in a press release. "In this highly competitive and commoditizing market, companies can differentiate through customer service," he said. Survey findings also indicate that perceived installation hassles play a key role in buying decisions. Seems like consumers are sick of the “four hour” installation window, suggesting that BSPs who offer appointments and stick to them may have a window of opportunity to steal customers away from competitors. It's hard to draw firm conclusions from research findings like this. But it is a good reminder that service providers should never take existing subs for granted, especially in times where new subscribers may be harder to find.

Cox has announced they will launch TV Caller ID, joining a variety of cable and telcoTV providers who do the same. The most notable cable company who has recently added TV Caller ID is Comcast, who made a similar announcement back in July. Cox’s TV Caller ID version joins their interactive television (iTV) platform which provides a variety of interactive features for the TV including:

• Access to Cox email
• Call logs
• Local and national weather forecasts
• News headlines
• Movie theater listings
• Horoscopes and lottery results
• View/pay bill

The new service will initially launch in Oklahoma City, and will launch in other markets throughout 2009. Cox will offer the service at no additional cost to Cox customers who subscribe to Cox Digital Telephone with Caller ID and Cox Digital Cable. TV Caller ID is quickly evolving from a differentiated value add service to a standard service needed to remain competitive.

Cox issued a press release announcing its intentions to launch wireless service in 2009, and integrate it into their successful bundling strategy. Cox intends to resell Sprint wireless services initially, and then augment that resale effort with their own 3G services from an ongoing wireless network build out project. Cox also says they are investigating LTE for a future 4G network play. “Our commitment is firm, and the wireless services we deliver will further the Cox experience. As consumers are increasingly adopting a mobile lifestyle, we will continue to deliver in ways that are uniquely Cox – offering the first truly integrated bundle that is easy-to-use, reliable and supported by the best customer service available,” said Pat Esser, president of Cox Communications in a company statement. They also offered insight into some integrated wireless features they intend to offer, including mobileTV, remote programming of DVRs, and access to content stored on home computers.

In the announcement, Cox touted its telephony track record and suggested they intend to see similar results with wireless. “Ten years ago, only Cox, a cable company, had the flexibility to introduce simpler telephone plans to the marketplace. And now, with wireless, we have the flexibility yet again to introduce a simpler and better wireless offer, making it easy for consumers to continue to choose Cox as their trusted provider. It’s an exciting future for our customers,” said Dallas Clement, senior vice president of strategy and product management. Funny how they failed to mention their first foray into wireless – the Pivot MVNO disaster, which touted much of this same promise at its launch. Cox will tell you they learned from that mistake, and will be the better for it. Next year is setting up to be quite an interesting one from a competitive standpoint. Cable companies will begin a serious foray into wireless, hoping to match their telecom competitors head on with a broadband wireless offensive.

Cox will begin offering a free online storage product to its premium high speed Internet customers in its Northern Virginia/suburban Washington D.C. markets. The service, branded as “Media Store and Share,” will provide 5 GB of storage for media and other computer files. The service also allows customers to share the files with friends and families. “Customers can back-up their files in their own secure, online vault -- and if they choose, they can share those files with friends and family," said Chris Pantoya, Cox Vice President-Sales and Marketing in a company statement.

The move is another example of service providers offering value added services to premium customers in order to differentiate themselves from competitors. Verizon competes with Cox in these markets, and offers a similar service to its broadband customers, but charges $4.99/month. Verizon does offer a free backup and storage service as well, but limits the space to 250 MB.

A Virginia court ruled in Cox’s favor over Verizon in a patent dispute over VoIP technology. Verizon was hoping to repeat a VoIP patent victory over Vonage, which resulted in a $117 million settlement. No such luck with Cox. "We remain deeply committed to providing our customers high-quality phone service at a great value, and look forward to competing vigorously with Verizon in the marketplace, not the courtroom," the company said in an e-mailed statement to Reuters. Verizon is pursuing a similar patent infringement suit with Charter. Looks like Charter’s defense just got a little stronger, and Cablevision and Time Warner Cable have a little less VoIP patent issues to worry about.

Cox and Casero Inc. announced the launch of Cox’s Media Store and Share, an online file storage, back-up, and sharing service. The product is based on Casero’s Personal Media Suite product. "Our customers have told us that just storing their content was not
enough. We needed a solution to provide sharing and storage together in an easy to use application," said Seth Hogan, Vice President of Data Product Management for Cox in a Casero company statement. According to Casero, Cox will include 5GB of space for its Premium and Preferred high-speed Internet customers, (enough for approximately 5000 photos, 1000 songs or six full-length movies), customized file sharing, automatic scheduling of content backup, access to their online files from any computer connected to the Internet.

In a revealing presentation, Cox President Patrick Esser told the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual tech policy summit in Aspen, Colorado that they intend to capture 20% market share for wireless service. Rather than join the Clearwire alliance like their other cable brethren, Cox is going it alone through its recent acquisition of 700 MHz spectrum. As reported by PC Magazine, Esser says he “…won't divulge too many secrets here, but we'll focus on providing simple calling plans, integrating all our services into one device with a consistent cross-platform interface; and making our content and applications mobile.”

Pretty bold comments considering the hyper-competitive marketplace for wireless. Achieving 20% penetration would be very impressive, especially for a company with no wireless experience. But Cox competitors shouldn’t take them lightly. They’ve been quite successful in capturing significant voice business from their telco competitors, and at one point, they had no experience with voice either. The pending move into wireless by the cable industry will be interesting to watch. They failed miserably with Pivot Wireless. But to their credit, they’re marching forward with a wireless act two. When and if they get it going, it will open up a new front in the bundling war between telco and cable. PC Magazine summed it up nicely with this Esser quote, “Frankly, we're in a street fight today for customers in every single aspect of our business – from the Bells and the satellite guys, to the wireless carriers.” Happy hunting.

Cox is apparently ignoring the recent Pew Internet research results which suggested that broadband pricing is still too high. According to BroadbandReports.com, Cox is raising their broadband pricing for many of their broadband tiers in several markets. Apparently, their "economy" tier will rise to $19.95 from $16.95 and their "value" tier to $29.95 from $26.95. Their “preferred” and “premiere” tiers are also rising to $44.95 and $59.95 respectively. These identified prices include bundle discounts for taking video. The Pew Research Center recently released their 2008 Home Broadband Adoption Study, in which one of the finding suggested that high prices for broadband is impeding higher broadband penetration rates for the U.S. The Pew results indicate growth in broadband penetration is relatively flat and “35% of dial-up users say that the price of broadband service would have to fall,” in order for them to give up dial up for broadband.

Of course that’s one opinion in the broadband pricing debate. Broadband carriers tend to have a different perspective, especially as the appetite for bandwidth continues to climb. Satisfying that growing subscriber appetite, while also holding the line on price is a challenge, they say. If the trend continues where broadband consumption continues to grow at a rapid pace, and there’s no indication it won’t, broadband carriers will continue to explore raising prices. Maybe even at the expense of slowing penetration growth. How are you coping with finding the right balance between price and penetration?

RCN is looking to wideband to keep up with its competitors, which include Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon. RCN is a scrappy overbuilder, and is often the third triple play option in many Northeast markets including Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. Its competitors have announced the move to DOCSIS 3.0, or in Verizon’s case, utilize FTTH. Speaking from a bandwidth perspective, RCN CEO Peter Aquino is quoted in a Light Reading article as saying, “We'll go as high as anyone else." RCN's move to wideband is being facilitated by reclamation of analog spectrum, as they shift to an all digital cable platform. That reclamation will take some time and RCN says that DOCSIS 3.0 and the 50 Mbps speeds it will bring won’t happen until late 2009. Given that Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon are moving considerably faster to that bogey, will RCN’s plan be too little, too late? Or is the broadband escalation strategy being pursued by all of these players overkill?

Cox and Nortel announced a partnership that will allow their respective sales organizations to market each others products and services. The new product solutions which include Nortel’s Business Communication Manager platform, will be packaged under the Cox Business brand. Cox Business provides communications services to business customers in 18 markets across the U.S., including small businesses, multi-location enterprises, regional healthcare providers and federal, state and local government organizations.