Cox Phone Tools, a free service for customers who subscribe to both Cox Digital Telephone and Cox High Speed Internet, enables customers to receive an instant e-mail notification when there is a new voice mail and listen to voice-mails messages online, view a log of incoming and outgoing calls, save voice messages and telephone numbers on a computer, and forward voicemails as e-mail attachments.

The Phone Tools service being marketed in Rhode Island this month is accessed through a secure Web portal at cox.net that enables customers to manage their telephone features from any computer with Internet service.

The new offering comes as Atlanta-based Cox – the state’s predominant cable-television provider and nation’s third-largest cable company – continues to integrate and expand its telephone, Internet and cable services as the traditional cable and telecom industries merge, said Joan Lawlor, product manager for telephony services at Cox.