Cox Communications entered the wireless telephone market in Rhode Island last week, partnering with Sprint Nextel to launch cell phone service across New England.

The Pivot cell phone service links Sprint’s wireless platform to Cox’s cable, high-speed Internet and home phone services, enabling Cox’s nearly 450,000 customers in Rhode Island and Connecticut to access their home voice mail from their cell phones and watch TV on the screens of some Sprint cell phones...

...Cox, along with other major cable operators in the Unites States, formed a joint venture with Sprint in 2005 to offer cell phone service. The cable operators have been seeking new ways to compete with Verizon and other incumbent telephone companies that are aggressively entering the cable TV business.