Cox-to-Time Warner Cable Firms Hit Phone Grip on Hospitals

Basic cable-TV subscribers have fallen every year since 2005, from 66 million to 59.3 million in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Video sales fell 1.1 percent in 2011 from a year earlier at Time Warner Cable Inc., the second-largest U.S. cable provider. Comcast Corp., the largest cable carrier, reports earnings Feb. 15. While cable companies still rely on residential services for the majority of their revenue, the biggest growth in the industry is from connecting regional businesses with broadband and other services, particularly hospitals and schools. Hospitals are prime candidates to upgrade their Internet networks from slower connections to cable broadband as the government mandates the digitization of medical records, said Phil Meeks, Cox’s senior vice president of business services.