Cox Communications customers can now link in to Time Warner Cable’s Wi-Fi hotspot network, pursuant to the roaming arrangement among major MSOs announced earlier this year called Cable Wi-Fi.
Bright House, Cablevision/Optimum, Comcast/Xfinity, Cox and Time Warner Cable formed Cable Wi-Fi as a vehicle for creating a much wider network of Wi-Fi hotspots with greater geographical coverage than any one of them could possibly create on its own.
The network currently includes about 200,000 hotspots, according the organization. The vast majority of those belong to Cablevision, Comcast and TWC.
Cox said that its customers with its Preferred, Premier or Ultimate High Speed Internet service get free access to the hotspots operated by its Cable WiFi peers with which it has integrated. That now includes TWC, Cablevision, and Comcast. The arrangements are all reciprocal; customers of those MSOs can also access hotspots run by Cox.
Cox has a much more modest Wi-Fi network, with concentrations largely in Connecticut and in Northern Virginia. Company executives have previously said Cox expects to expand its hotspot network, but the company has not announced any programs to do so.
With the latest integration with Time Warner Cable’s hotspots, Cox customers now can access free WiFi in additional cities including Los Angeles, New York City, Austin, Charlotte and Kansas City. The new hotspots are located in high-traffic areas such as restaurants, malls, sports arenas, parks and beaches and join thousands of existing hotspot locations available to Cox customers in markets such as San Francisco, Boston, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Chicago.
The company said more hotspots are expected to be added before the end of the year as the integration with other MSOs continues. Left to go is Bright House Networks. Cox said it is working to add Orlando and Tampa to the list of cities available to eligible Cox customers.
“Cox continues to extend our customers access to WiFi hotspots across the country delivering information and entertainment anytime, anywhere,” said Len Barlik, executive vice president and chief product officer.”Not only are we providing our customers access to nearly 200,000 WiFi hotspots throughout the country, we are also making it convenient and simple for customers to locate and logon to these hotspots.”
Cox offers multiple ways to find a WiFi hotspot. Customers who are already in a WiFi hotspot can look for the “CoxWiFi” or “CableWiFi” network name on their WiFi-enabled devices, and use their Cox username and password to log into the hotspot.
Alternatively, Cox customers who are looking for WiFi access can go to the Cox web site and enter their current location to find nearby hotspots.
[this article was edited to clarify the integration status with Comcast and Bright House Networks]
