Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • June 2004 (Revised September 2005)
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

Cox Communications, Inc.

By: Thomas R. Eisenmann and Jonathan Gibbons
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:29
ShareBar

Abstract

Cox Communications, the third largest U.S. cable television system operator, is confronting strategy decisions in mid-2004. Cox managers must decide whether to speed its deployment of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which offers capital and operating costs savings compared to the traditional circuit-switched technologies Cox has used to offer phone service. Cox has had great success in attacking incumbent phone companies with bundles that include TV, high-speed Internet, and telephone services. However, VoIP deployment will be capital intensive, and Wall Street is pressuring Cox, like other cable operators, to deliver free cash flow. At the same time, cable operators have been losing market share to satellite TV providers, and Cox managers must decide whether to accelerate the capital-intensive deployment of digital video recorders (DVRs) to address this competitive threat. Can Cox afford to offer both VoIP and DVRs? A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Keywords

Customers; Information Technology; Competition; Product Development; Media and Broadcasting Industry; Telecommunications Industry; United States

Citation

Eisenmann, Thomas R., and Jonathan Gibbons. "Cox Communications, Inc." Harvard Business School Case 804-192, June 2004. (Revised September 2005.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Thomas R. Eisenmann

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • January 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Proday: Calling the Right Play

    By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn
    • February 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Launching the Social

    By: Tom Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Tom Quinn
    • February 2022 (Revised October 2022)
    • Faculty Research

    Ample Hills Creamery

    By: Tom Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Tom Quinn
More from the Authors
  • Proday: Calling the Right Play By: Lindsay N. Hyde, Thomas R. Eisenmann and Tom Quinn
  • Launching the Social By: Tom Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Tom Quinn
  • Ample Hills Creamery By: Tom Eisenmann, Lindsay N. Hyde and Tom Quinn
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College