Cable operator Cox Communications Inc., the country's third-largest cable operator, is exploring the possibility of putting on the block four cable systems, valued at an estimated $1.8 billion to $2.7 billion, in an apparent effort to cash in on the increasing interest in cable among private-equity firms, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported.

The Atlanta company, which has about 6.3 million subscribers and took itself private late last year in an $8.5 billion transaction, said it was considering selling the systems to reduce debt that its parent, Cox Enterprises Inc., took on to finance the buyout. Cox executives consider the systems, which serve 900, 000 subscribers in eight states, to be noncore assets because they are spread out much more than their densely clustered systems in regions such as San Diego and northern Virginia.

Cox has hired Citigroup Global Markets, Lehman Brothers Inc. and J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. to advise the company as it explores a sale. A company spokesman declined to estimate a price range, but analysts estimated the systems would sell for $2,000 to $3,000 a subscriber.

Cox paid an average of $3,900 a subscriber when it took itself private. The subscribers Cox is considering selling are considered less valuable because they are in systems that are more spread out, making the offering of new services such as phone and video-on-demand more difficult.

Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter Peter Grant contributed to this report. Dow Jones Newswires 03-07-05 2347ET Copyright (C) 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.