Wow, this sure looks under-followed, at least on SI! A sure good sign! :)
Cox appears to be reaching the bottom of a trading range, and appears pretty over-sold here.
They are about to roll-out Internet access in San Diego, and are talking a lot about telephone service and corporate data services as well.
One thing I don't like about Cox is that - at least from a customer's viewpoint - they do an awful lot of talking. Maybe that is just how everyone plays the cable game, perhaps most consumers have to be hit over the head for a year before a new product is introduced. I'd prefer not to have someone jabbering at me about a product that they will be introducing at some time in the future.
I am *tired* of their stupid TV ads about "The Information Super-What?" and getting endless inserts in my cable bill about the @Home internet service that will some day be here.
I recently sent them an e-mail in response to one of their stupid inserts, and it seems to have woken-them up. I'm supposed to have a beta installation of @Home tomorrow afternoon. I gather from my conversation with them that they will roll-out @Home publically in San Diego on May 15, since that is the data that they indicated that I would start being charged for service, and could make a decision whether to keep the service.
This could be a good time to buy, before upcoming announcements about @Home and telephone service in San Diego. I beleive that Sprint PCS already uses Cox's transmission facilities to link their transmitters. It sounds like they plan on exploiting their fiber plant to the fullest.
This thing is not terribly volatile, but it could be worth 5 points over the next few months, with minimal risk from this level.
I'm only familiar with Cox as a consumer, but I'll comment on that aspect at least. They are perceived as being a bit high-priced, and generally viewed by consumers as somewhat exploitative. They have been compelled by the CPUC a couple of times to make refunds to all of their customers. (I beleive one of them was for excessive late fees.) I beleive their customer service has gone from terrible a few years ago to excellent - perhaps because they can't afford the perception that all this new stuff they've installed is cr*p, so they have gone out of their way to deal with service problems individually and make sure they follow-up. I'll know more about how computer-literate they are tomorrow. :)
(By the way, us "beach bums" in San Diego do more net surfing per capita than anywhere else in the country - Silicon Valley included. We have the highest number of modems/household in the country, and even the largest number of BBSs, though I'm sure that the latter is a shrinking number. Can't remember when I've dialed one of those. :) ) |
