Cox Communications' decision to shut down its own 3G infrastructure and step up its play as a Sprint MVNO has had little spillover effect on the MSO's commercial services arm. Commercial is still behind residential on the mobile wireless deployment timetable .
"I'd like to have it sooner, but from a company perspective, that was the right decision," Phil Meeks, senior vice president of Cox Business said during a conversation with FierceCable.
Wireless, Meeks said, could add another $4 billion on top of the $7 billion in business that commercial services bring to Cox Business. He's willing to wait for it, though, and isn't too concerned because most of the small-medium-businesses (SMBs) Cox serves are "pretty dissatisfied with their current wireless providers," he said. "As we get into that space we will deploy a wireless product that makes sense for that market."
Another market that Cox is seriously studying is the home office--a level below an SMB--often referred to as a small office/home office (SOHO). It's an opportunity that needs its own business plan that includes "simple bundles" of services that give a SOHO "the feel of a bigger business," he said.
Another selling feature to bring SOHOs into the commercial space rather than staying on residential plans is hosted security, said Meeks, citing statistics that 93 percent of small businesses that suffer significant data loss for whatever reason go out of business in five years.
"We need to put together a bundle that empowers those home-based businesses," he said.
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