Cable Company Improves Customer Service With Wireless Communications

Cox Communications (Atlanta), the nation's third-largest cable and Internet service provider, employs several thousand technicians to install, maintain, and repair subscribers' cable and Internet connections for its 6.6 million customers. To enable these technicians to operate efficiently from the field, Cox Communications uses wireless data communication to provide current customer orders, service requests, and technical information. The company also relies on mobile communications to reach technicians when orders are updated or cancelled, saving needless customer visits and improving efficiency.

Earlier this year, Cox Communications added public wireless Internet carriage to augment its private RF (radio frequency) system and enhance communications between field service representatives and the home office. At the same time, it identified a need to extend its wireless data capabilities to facilitate reaching field technicians while they are away from their in-vehicle terminals during service calls. It is accessible only via handheld devices.

"Together, these factors presented quite a challenge, one we knew we had to address with some type of technology," says Michael J. Kovash, the company's senior IP (Internet Protocol) project manager. The company developed a list of requirements for such technology, with flexibility and scalability topping the roster. For example, to maximize the communications efficiency afforded by a combination of private RF communications and public wireless Internet, the solution had to accommodate applications that relied on static IP addresses to identify and reach field service representatives with mission-critical data. Easy integration with the Microsoft (Redmond, WA) Windows and WindowsCE operating systems used on handheld devices deployed in the field was another prerequisite, according to Jim Jones, Cox Communications' IT project manager in charge of wireless networks.

Maintain Wireless Connections As Technicians Switch Networks
After evaluating solutions from three vendors, the company chose the TotalRoam software platform from Padcom, Inc. (Bethlehem, PA). The TotalRoam Gateway component of the system, which resides on Cox Communications' server, manages mobile in-vehicle and handheld devices ("mobile clients") while providing inbound and outbound data transmission functions. Outbound, the system routes data (for example, service orders) from LANs to mobile clients through the best available wireless network, based on preset routing rules. Inbound, the system receives data (such as job completion information) from mobile clients and forwards it over LANs to host applications.

A second component of the system, TotalRoam Mobile Client, is installed on the technicians' devices - the mobile clients - and transparently manages the transfer of data from these clients to the host server. This portion of the solution identifies a single, virtual IP address employed by all applications on a given device. It also manages users' connections to each wireless network by permitting a mobile client to track changes in its identity as it switches networks, then transparently register its new identity with the TotalRoam Gateway.

With the system in place, Cox Communications can maintain business process consistency and better meet customers' requirements by identifying and pushing mission-critical data out to the right field technicians. Because the system provides static IP addresses for each mobile client, there was no need to alter legacy applications despite the addition of public wireless Internet carriage. Data encryption at the individual mobile client level eliminates data security concerns.