Cox Internet customers with pre-2001 modems will need new equipment

Just as old-style analog televisions are becoming outmoded, an old kind of computer communications device is headed for the junk heap for customers of Cox Communications.

Starting in March, customers who have computer modems built before 2001 must buy new modems to use the company’s Internet service, spokesman Juergen Barbusca said.

“All of Las Vegas will be switched by the end of April,” he said.

Cox will ship a new modem to a customer for $60, or the customer may buy a modem for as little as $30 from another party, he said. Alternatively, the customer may lease a new modem from Cox for $10 monthly.

Ken Stewart, an elementary school teacher with one of the old modems, objects to having to change his equipment.

“This is a hard time to ask customers to fork over more money for a service they are happy with,” he said.

Cox offered neither a payment plan nor a rebate, he said.

Stewart, who bought his current modem seven years ago, said he was informed that he must buy a new modem to continue using Cox Internet service starting March 1.

Barbusca said that the requirement for new modems was reasonable.

The fastest computer modem in 2001 is slower than the slowest of the new versions, he said.

In 1998, the fastest Internet service was 1 megabit per second, he said. Now, the slowest available is 1.5 megabits per second and the fastest is 12 megabits per second.

“These older modems just can’t handle the lowest speeds that we’re offering,” Barbusca said.

Cox intends to phase out network equipment for the older version modems, because these old products take up valuable portions of the company’s “frequency allocation,” Barbusca said.

The change does not affect Cox telephone service or cable television service, he said.

Less than 1 percent of the company’s customers still have 2001 and earlier modems, he said, adding that the company does not disclose the number of customers it serves in Southern Nevada.

Contact reporter John G. Edwards at jedwards@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0420.