NCTA: Cox and Nortel to Offer Equipment & Services Packages for Businesses

Cox Business is partnering with Nortel, in a multi-year deal to sell cableco services along with its voice, data and video equipment in select service areas of the cableco region.

The deal was announced at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) conference today. Neither side said whether or not the deal is an exclusive arrangement.

Nortel says it will also install equipment and provide technical support for these firms. The news is part of a greater emphasis on providing firms on-premises equipment in addition to communications and content services.

Believing that Telco TV providers are focusing on residential triple-play at the expense of their small and midsize business (SMB) opportunities, cablecos have unleashed the bundles on firms with offerings such as Comcast Corp’s Business Class and Microsoft’s Unified Communications Services productivity package.

The equipment includes routers, Ethernet switches, wireless access pionts and phone clients.

The Cox-Nortel deal covers more than just voice, data and video products. The cabelco’s business customers now will have access to the vendor’s Business Communications Manager, which is a hybrid IP PBX offering.

“Leveraging relationships with key suppliers like Nortel allows us to deliver broader solutions and we will continue to explore alternate strategies to meet the growing demands of our customers,” said Tim McKinley, vice-president of field operations for Cox Business, in prepared comments.

Cox Business provides communications services to business customers in 18 markets across the U.S., including small businesses, multi-location enterprises, regional healthcare providers and federal, state and local government organizations. It did not say which area will be covered by the deal with Nortel.

The cableco commercial business unit claims over 240,000 customers, with the parent company total number of customer served is 6.2 million. The bulk of those are residential.

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