COVID-19 update from Cox Communications
We recognize that in addition to our many residential customers who depend on our services to stay connected, many governments, businesses, schools and community organizations rely on Cox Communications services to operate. As organizations increasingly decide to allow employees to work from home and students to learn from home, we want you to know our customers will experience the same high standard of performance you expect from Cox.
First and foremost, our network is built to handle peak use in the evenings to meet the full needs of families’ demands for entertainment, school assignments and late-night deadlines. This same network is available to support our customers if they are connecting from home throughout the day. We have gigabit speeds available throughout our service area to meet the ultimate needs of these families.
Cox announced today that we are implementing several changes to support our residential customers in need during the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, we are upgrading internet speeds for select residential packages and implementing a variety of other changes to provide support and relief for our customers and communities in greatest need.
Cox has a low-income broadband program known as Connect2Compete and we are implementing changes to this program to expand, improve and expedite enrollment to help school systems with a large population of students who need to learn from home. New Connect2Compete customers will receive their first month of service free, which is normally available to qualified low-income households with a K- 12 student in the home for $9.95/month. This goes into effect Monday, March 16. We’re also increasing the service’s speed from 25/3 Mbps to 50/3 Mbps for 60 days. The speed increase will go into effect Tuesday, March 17. We will also be expediting qualification of new families participating in the program.
Please find more information here about these measures to support our customers and communities: https://newsroom.cox.com/cox_internet_changes_to_assist_students_-_remote_workers
Cox also announced today its support for the FCC’s Keep America Connected initiative as part of the company’s ongoing coronavirus response efforts. As part of its commitment, Cox pledges for the next 60 days to: not terminate service to any residential or small business customer because of an inability to pay their bills due to disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic; waive any late fees that any residential or small business customer incur because of their economic circumstances related to the coronavirus pandemic; and will open Cox WiFi hotspots to help keep the public connected in this time of need.
As to the readiness and
resiliency of our network, we want to
assure you that
our highly redundant
and resilient network is fully operational. We are completely staffed
around the clock and
our
all-hands-deck team of nationwide network professionals can
holistically monitor and
manage our network,
both physically from our network
operations centers and 100 percent virtually, if needed.
These capabilities are already in place
and thoroughly tested. Our forward-thinking
network management and
service assurance philosophy
means we have software-enabled
and virtualized
significant portions of our network to proactively and reactively solve any temporary customer and
network issues in
a timely and
efficient manner.
Cox operates a high-speed, national fiber optic backbone comprised of tens of thousands of fiber miles. Our backbone is self-healing through strategic deployment of core infrastructure components. Multiple diverse connections help ensure backbone locations are not isolated in the event of an outage and that we maintain ample capacity to handle peak traffic periods. Our experience includes keeping customers online and connected during wildfires, mudslides, severe weather events and numerous other natural disasters.
We’ve successfully virtualized our network operations by executing long-term business continuity strategies, implementing new leading-edge collaboration and predictive analytic tools, providing full functionality mobile workstations and equipping our network operations teams with robust tools to work remotely.
Going forward we will continue working closely with our parent company, Cox Enterprises, and public health officials to monitor COVID-19 developments and to take steps to ensure workplace safety for our employees and customers and maintain business and service continuity. That is our priority.
As always, we stand ready to support and serve you and our communities. Thanks for your partnership as we work through this unprecedented time together.
Sincerely,
John Wolfe
SVP and Region Manager, Southwest Region Cox Communications
