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Clearwire-Sprint Deal: Why the Who’s of Who’s are Investing in WiMAX
While the business world has been buzzing about the Microsoft-Yahoo talks, the big news for WiMAX fans is the Sprint and Clearwire deal. More details on the financial and commercial agreements are provided in this article.
Sprint and Intel both already had much invested in the success of WiMAX technology but the reasoning behind the cable companies and Google’s involvement is being questioned by some.
So why are these companies investing in WiMAX technology?
Comcast and Time Warner have been feeling the pressure from Verizon and AT&T who have been forcing their way into the television industry by providing video through your phone line. Verizon is attempting to lay fiber all the way to the home, or close to it. AT&T is laying fiber to the ‘node’ and relying on current wires to carry video signals to consumers’ homes. By helping the growth of WiMAX, Comcast and Time Warner would be funding an alternative wireless offering. Having a hand in mobile broadband technology could also help the cable companies compete in the ongoing battle for our living rooms. The triple play (phone, internet, and television) offering is no longer enough. CE, PC, console game, networking equipment, phone, and cable companies are trying to take over home media not only because of the huge potential to sell a complete ecosystem of products, services, and content but also for fear of being shut out.
Google is rumored to have been reluctant to enter the deal particularly because the WiMAX offered by Clearwire is currently just fixed wireless broadband. The company had to promise a future in building a mobile wireless solution for Time Warner, Comcast, and Google to put up the money. Obviously bringing broadband internet to mobile devices would mean more time spent on the internet and possibly more time spent on Google, Gmail, or YouTube. But mobile broadband also means more mobile devices which would, hopefully for Google, operate on the Android operating system that was launched by Google back in November 2007.
It will be interesting to see where this deal takes us.
Ari Zoldan
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