Cox Communications is adding diagnostic capabilities into its data network that could lead to a managed services offering for some of its home networking customers.
In June, Cox started selling data gateways with DOCSIS 3.0 and 802.11n from Cisco and Netgear directly to its customers. While the nation’s third-largest cable operator has a long history of selling home networking gear to its subscribers, the new gateways could lead to Cox dipping its toe into managed services for home networking.
“We’re figuring out whether to move to more of a managed services model with the gateways,” said Seth Hogan, Cox’s vice president of strategy and product development. “We’re putting some capabilities into our network that give us the ability to do some remote diagnostics and remote repair. We could offer customers the option for us to manage their home networks for some kind of recurring fee.
“We’re studying it and looking at an offering there. If you look at some of the other MSOs, I would say we’re trailing some of our brethren there. We are, however, actively working to put the remote diagnostic capabilities into our network and into our OSS/BSS tools as a way to support the gateways that are being sold and installed in our customers’ homes.”
Cox subscribers can install the Cisco and Netgear data gateways themselves, or the cable operator can do the install for them. One benefit for the Cox customers who buy them is that they can buy the gateways directly from Cox instead of through a retail outlet.
“We’re not far enough down the road to say we have a product launch for this, but we believe there’s a subset of our customers who not only don’t want to install the home network equipment, but also don’t even think about the home network,” Hogan said. “We see a lot of value, from a high-speed Internet perspective, in moving from stopping at the cable modem to having a presence in the home both for managed services and home networking, and for other opportunities that may lead to.”
Hogan said Cox would do some slight customization to the gateways in order to add the remote diagnostic capability. Cox has priced both gateways at around $120, which is just under the retail prices.
“A lot of our technical support calls for high-speed Internet fall into that big category of connectivity, but when you start to peel that down, a significant number of those calls are related to home networking,” Hogan said. “With our reputation for customer service, we tend to bend over backwards to fix problems that are over that traditional line of demarcation, but this would be a way to help those customers. It’s a small base now, but it would grow over time.
“For the customers who bought a gateway from us, this is a way we can do a certain amount of diagnostics and not have to do a truck roll from a trouble call. If we ever roll out more advanced managed services, it would let us upsell those customers, as well.”
Plus Package update
In May, Cox announced its Plus Package tier, which included the new Trio guide it developed with NDS and a whole-home DVR service using Cisco set-top boxes.
At the time of its introduction, Cox said it expected to have Plus Package available in most of its systems by the end of this year. As of earlier this month, Cox’s Steve Necessary, vice president of video product development, said Plus Package was available in some employees’ homes in at least six Cox systems. Necessary said he was “pretty bullish” about Cox meeting its previously announced goal of having its flagship video home networking tier in most of its systems by year’s end. Cox hasn’t announced the price of Plus Package.
For more on video home networking, check out the October issue of CED.