Sprint Nextel now also together with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, and Advance/Newhouse
posted Nov 2nd 2005 10:40AM
Looks like all the big boys are at the table from what
we'd been hearing murmurs of:
Sprint Nextel,
Comcast,
Time Warner Cable,
Cox, and Advance/Newhouse have announced they're
entering into a $200 million 20-year joint venture. At the behest of Sprint, who's investing half of that $200m, the
venture calls for a unified services bundle of wired and wireless Internet and voice communications (among other
things); they'll also be developing co-branded products to sell out of Sprint, Radio Shack, and other retail outlets
(which we have a feeling they won't be calling Sprint Nextel Comcast Time Warner Cox Advance Newhouse products, since
cobranding will be handled regionally).
Of course, Sprint loves this deal (and is investing the most cash) because it secures content and bundling
partnerships for their very multimedia-centric
Power Vision EV-DO and future wireless
services for years to come, but the cable companies love it not only because it lets them spit in the face of Verizon's
and SBC's FTTH initiatives, but because it puts them in concert with a major wireless carrier for said bundling of
wired/wireless communications — another shot at Verizon (Wireless). The cable cos obviously see the benefits to using a
wireless device to expand the functionality of their home services (think: place-shifting DVR content to your phone,
unlimited calls between home phones and cellphones, etc.), and don't even get us started on what happens when you start
talking WiMax, which is another thing briefly touched upon in the release.
[Thanks, Dave]
DAYUM!!! Cingular is getting beat down.
The next new thing is we'll be paying people to guide us around town like blind people because everyone will be staring at their phones all day.
Oh, and I can't wait for police to start showing up at accidents and seeing a open cell phone, still tuned to MTV stuck half-way in the windshield.
It kind of ups the ante for getting VGA screens on these "phones". No wait, I need 1920 x 1080!
New product on Sprint Power service just posted. Yea, I'm ready for EVDO!
http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/index/real_people_reviews_mm_9000_pricey_but_offers_gadgety_fun
Cool, but no way am I watching TV shows on that tiny little screen. Sprint needs some cool phones to go along with decent content...
So am I going to be able to watch "My Name is Earl" in the most inappropiate locations, such as a children's play? If so, Im going to go from Sprint powered by Nextel to Sprint.
Unless Google provides free WiMax for the whole nation, I think this is probably the closest and next best thing. Although, I would rather see a large deployment of WiMax and IP technologies instead.
However, I have not read one press release today (the link given as well) that hinted on WiMax as part of this venture. Sprint and DoD is a seperate issue.
Got info?
Twenty years? Who plans twenty years ahead? For that matter, who really believes we'll still be using wired services twenty years from now?
I guess not.