Sprint Nextel in talks over cable company partnerships
posted October 25th 2005 8:00AM
One day we will not only look back on the great media wars of the early 21st century with awe and wonder, but we'll
be experiencing flashbacks and Post-Traumatic Stress from these bloody battles over our communication and entertainment
dollar. It looks like the three biggest cable companies in the US: Comcast, Time Warner, and Cox, are all working up
deals with Sprint Nextel for
including cellphone service in their all-in-one packages that already cover TV, internet, and a new push into
VOIP phone service. The difference between
this rumored deal with Sprint and that of a normal
MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) would be the
possible integration of cellphones with VOIP service, something that the traditional phone companies are scared to
death of, but integrates perfectly with the current VOIP ambitions of the cable companies. We sure wouldn't mind
finding ourselves next year toting a single phone for both cell and VOIP calls, seamlessly switching from WiFi to cell
towers, and having an all around good time. This is of course still in negotiation, so no telling what we'll
actually end up with.
[Via Phone Scoop]
Take it the other direction, not VOIP, but video and internet through your phone.
Plug your EV-DO phone into your car that has a dvd player and some displays in it, now you've got "on-demand" in your car.
Why not add a tivo to your vehicle while you're at it for all the media you're streaming in.
Wifi is not the answer. We need EV-DO or faster on every cell phone tower. Even then, the latency is poor. I want to see some decent QoS on a wireless broadband solution. They can do it, we're just not showing the demand.
Doh!
Just signed a two year w/Verizon. I get cable/net/phone with Cox and can't complain too much.
Of course, Sprint's phones are just plain fugly. Maybe it's better if I don't put too many eggs in one basket...
Convergence is a beautiful thing and all it requires is that greed be put aside so that everyone can enjoy the spoils. This is a good sign, becuase the phone companies are starting to enter the tv markets with fiber optic delivery of content and when you combine that with wifi enabled handsets that also have ev-do capabilities, the prices for standard cable and moble phone services should be heading south amidst the new competition.
here's about a two minute read, it's very interesting and gives some insight to the road ahead. The information about Sprint and Cable is towards the end.
http://www.pcsintel.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1100
Very interesting.
Sprint/Comcast/etc. versus Verizon/DirecTV. That's what this seems to be coming down to. They're grouping up to fight a gigantic corporate battle that could have quite the effect on a large number of markets. Cable versus satellite TV, cable internet versus DSL, VZW versus Sprint PCS...it's all coming down to this.