Cox will begin offering a free online storage product to its premium high speed Internet customers in its Northern Virginia/suburban Washington D.C. markets. The service, branded as “Media Store and Share,” will provide 5 GB of storage for media and other computer files. The service also allows customers to share the files with friends and families. “Customers can back-up their files in their own secure, online vault — and if they choose, they can share those files with friends and family,” said Chris Pantoya, Cox Vice President-Sales and Marketing in a company statement.
The move is another example of service providers offering value added services to premium customers in order to differentiate themselves from competitors. Verizon competes with Cox in these markets, and offers a similar service to its broadband customers, but charges $4.99/month. Verizon does offer a free backup and storage service as well, but limits the space to 250 MB.
