WSJ: Comcast, Time Warner Mull WiMax

Top Two Cable Operators, Bright House Networks in Talks About Network to Be Operated by Sprint Nextel, Clearwire

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/26/2008 10:06:00 AM

Cable operators Comcast and Time Warner Cable are considering investing in a new company run by Sprint Nextel and Clearwire that would use WiMax technology to provide wireless broadband access to laptops, cellular phones and other portable devices, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal Wednesday.

According to the Journal, Comcast would invest as much as $1 billion in the wireless concern, with Time Warner Cable putting up $500 million and Bright House Networks contributing $100 million-$200 million. The story suggested that Sprint is trying to line up additional funding from computer-chip giant Intel and Internet search leader Google.

The WiMax foray wouldn't be the first time cable companies have partnered with Sprint Nextel on a wireless play. In 2005, Comcast, Time Warner, Bright House and Cox Communications teamed up with Sprint Nextel on a joint venture called "Pivot" that was designed to provide a wireless-phone service that would complement cable's wire-based video, data and telephony services. But Pivot faced operational challenges and met with myriad delays, and it had such a slow rollout that Sprint announced last fall that it would stop marketing the service.

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire also announced last summer that they would partner on a WiMax joint venture, but they later backed away from those plans.

Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House aren't the only multichannel-TV operators currently mulling wireless options.

Dish Network, which won a nationwide slice of wireless spectrum with its Frontier Wireless subsidiary in the Federal Communications Commission's 700-megahertz auction that concluded last week, may use the spectrum to launch a one-way video-on-demand service, according to various Wall Street analysts.

That would help to plug a competitive gap in its satellite-based TV service -- the inability to offer true on-demand movies without partnering with a telco to send movies through a broadband connection, as Dish has done with AT&T in its Homezone service.