The deal allows Cox and Verizon Wireless to sell each others’ services in their stores and other sales channels. The joint marketing arrangement is similar to the one agreed to in the groundbreaking deal disclosed earlier this month between Verizon and Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks, in which Verizon said it would pay the cable consortium $3.6 billion for wireless spectrum licenses covering 259 million people in the U.S.

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The cable company said that it will stop selling cellular service as of today and will discontinue service to current customers as of March, though it promised to help them transition to other providers. Cox has been reselling 3G service from Sprint to customers in about half of its service areas.

Existing customers will get a $150 credit on their bill for each line of wireless service and keep their phone as well as any deals they had for bundling their phone and cable services.

“Cox is working to make this transition as seamless and easy as possible for our customers,” Executive VP Len Barlik said in a statement.

In making the decision, Cox cited several reasons, including the rapid shift to 4G and its inability to land “iconic devices.”

The move, Cox said, will allow the cable company to reach its goal of offering wireless service to half its customer base this year.

“We believe this approach is good for our customers, allowing us to take the necessary steps to fulfill our promise to deliver a Cox experience that customers expect from us,” Cox said in a statement. “In continuing with our successful wholesale model for 3G wireless services, we will accomplish speed to market while achieving greater operational efficiencies from a wholesale model that continues to improve. We are proud of our initial success with wireless, already nearly doubling our projected subscriber forecast.”

A representative declined to say how many millions Cox had spent on spectrum and network gear or to comment on its future plans for the spectrum it owns. Cox sells its service using the pitch of “unbelievably fair wireless,” offering terms such as cash back for unused minutes.

Cox’s plan was reported earlier on Tuesday by Fierce Wireless.

Yesterday, Walt Disney’s ABC broadcast network and ESPN cable sports channel announced a deal at the Cable Show in Las Vegas to provide free on-demand video of hit shows and other content to Cox Communications, one of the bigger cable companies. Except Cox was required to disable its fast-forward feature to stop viewers from skipping over ads. Thus, those with Cox’s on-demand service lose that functionality, although subscribers with their own digital video recorder can still do as they please, thanks be to the TiVo gods.

This move is a disappointment to me, because I think Disney under the leadership of CEO Bob Iger (pictured here) is one of the more–excuse me–fast forward of the television companies, making big strides in moving its programming all over the Net and onto other devices beyond the television. Its own ABC.com, for example, is one of my favorite places to watch “Ugly Betty” and other popular prime-time programming using its really exceptional player. And I don’t even mind its ads embedded in the program, though I do surf the Web as I listen to them, because it was part of the deal I understood when I clicked in, as opposed to on-demand viewers who usually get to fast-forward through programming.

Iger has energized the digital fortunes of Disney since he took over, and he should be commended for this kind of innovative stuff. But he also should be pilloried for moves such as Disney made with Cox. The very idea of this is offensive, given the inexorable movement away from heavy-handed control of consumers’ ability to have what they want, when they want, how they want.

What’s that you say from your Burbank aerie? Programming needs to be paid for? “Advertising is critical to the financial health of our business, and this agreement marks the first time one of our cable-operator partners is acknowledging that,” said Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney-ABC Television Group, to The Wall Street Journal in a story about the Cox deal.

So the plan is to hobble consumers and force-feed them ads they probably don’t want to see? Figuring out new ad solutions in the new paradigm is Disney’s problem and that of the advertising industry. How about coming up with ads that are truly relevant or helpful? Or even entertaining and involving?