Starting today, Time Warner Cable and Verizon Wireless are now offering cross-promotional bundles in Raleigh, N.C.; Kansas City; and Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio.
It’s the first joint product marketing effort between the nation’s second-largest cable operator and Verizon Wireless after the two companies – along with Comcast and Bright House Networks – agreed to sell each other’s products in December.
That agreement also covered the sale of the cable operators’ Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum licenses, held by joint venture SpectrumCo, to Verizon Wireless for $3.6 billion. Later in December, Cox Communications sold its 20 MHz AWS licenses to Verizon Wireless for $315 million, with plans to offer its customers access to Verizon Wireless’ LTE service. The spectrum sale has since come under regulatory scrutiny by the Justice Department and the FCC.
Like Comcast’s previous cross-promotional efforts with Verizon Wireless, Time Warner Cable is now offering new and existing customers the chance to bundle their cable services with Verizon Wireless’ phone service, while Verizon Wireless is able to do the same in areas where Verizon’s FiOS service isn’t available.
“The joining together of the best products and services from Time Warner Cable and Verizon Wireless into a single package is a big win for customers in the Triangle,” said Christine Whitaker, area vice president of operations in Eastern N.C. for Time Warner Cable. “These new packages provide more choice, convenience and greater value and bring customers a more complete entertainment and communications experience inside their home and wherever they go.”
New and current Time Warner Cable and Verizon Wireless customers who sign up for one of these packages from both companies may be eligible to receive a $200 prepaid debit card. Customers can select their package preference from a range of offers that include video, Internet, home phone and mobile services. Time Warner Cable’s DOCSIS 3.0-based Ultimate Internet, which features download speeds of up to 50 Mbps, and SignatureHome are also available to be packaged with a Verizon Wireless offer. (Here’s a look at some of the pricing options.)
Time Warner Cable customers can also sign up in person for the bundled packages in some of Verizon Wireless’ retail locations.
Time Warner Cable spokesman Justin Venech said Time Warner Cable and Verizon Wireless expect to launch the joint packages in additional markets in the coming months, but they declined to say which markets would be next.
Venech also said he couldn’t comment on the innovation technology joint venture that the cable operators formed with Verizon Wireless for the development of technology to better integrate wireline and wireless products and services. The joint operating entity will be based in Philadelphia, which is where Comcast has its headquarters.
