In a Monday announcement, five bigwig US cable providers said that they are joining forces for creating a countrywide `CableWiFi' network which will likely be launched in the coming months.

The `CableWiFi' network to be offered by five of the US' biggest cable providers - Comcast, Time Warner, Cablevision, Bright House and Cox - will essentially be a network of more than 50,000 free Wi-Fi hot spots across the country.

Partly designed will the aim of taking on the phone carriers, the shared `CableWiFi' will give the existing subscribers, of any of the mentioned five partnering cable companies, the ability to use one another's Wi-Fi hot spots. In other words, the customers of any of the five companies will be able to use their free Wi-Fi hotspots when they travel outside their home network area.

While the `CableWiFi' brand has already been implemented by Bright House and Cablevision respectively in Central Florida and the New York City area, the coming months will witness the other three partners also adding the name to their branded Wi-Fi hotspots.

Noting that the `CableWiFi' initiative will add "great value to our high-speed Internet customers," Bright House's president Nomi Bergman said in a Monday statement that the shared `CableWiFi' network will provide "free wireless Internet access on all of their WiFi-enabled devices in our markets and additional areas across the country."