Philadelphia ? Sprint Nextel Corp. and four of the nation’s largest cable companies will be expanding their joint cell-phone service fivefold to 40 metropolitan areas by the end of the year and have set their sights on luring small businesses from phone companies.

John Garcia, president of the Sprint-Cable Joint Venture in Overland Park, Kan., said the cell phone services will carry the brand name Pivot to present a unified marketing message across markets served by Comcast Corp., Time Warner Inc.’s cable unit, Cox Communications Inc. and Advance/ Newhouse Communications.

The phones will carry the Sprint name, while Pivot and the cable company monikers will be seen on screen. Garcia said available handsets have expanded from about four to around 20.

Pivot is currently available in Raleigh, N.C.; Austin, Texas; Boston; Portland, Ore.; San Diego; Phoenix; Cincinnati; and Dayton, Ohio.

Garcia said the next step for the joint venture, announced in November 2005, would be to market bundled services to companies. Cable operators, such as Philadelphia-based Comcast, have already set plans to aggressively sell bundled video, Internet and phone services to small- and mid-sized firms.

Garcia sees wireless services being included in cable’s bundles for business.

“Small business will be the next market,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Garcia said the business bundle that includes wireless is already being tested in one market, but he declined to be specific and didn’t disclose a timeframe for a wider launch.

Brian Roberts, the chief executive of Comcast, said in January that the company’s “next great business opportunity” lies in selling its Internet, voice and video services to smaller companies.