Well, what do you know? Sometimes even the most repetitive of rumors finally comes true. Barely 12 hours after the Wall Street Journal reported that a deal between Sprint, Clearwire (and just about everyone) else was dangerously close to going down, it seems as if the bottom lines have indeed been signed. Details are pretty light at the moment, but we definitively know that Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. will be merging their "next-generation wireless broadband businesses to form a new wireless communications company." Quite simply, the new WiMAX-pushing outfit will be called Clearwire, even though Sprint will hold around 51-percent of the firm, while existing Clearwire shareholders will own 27-percent and the new investors will hold 22-percent. New investors? Ah yes, Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks will collectively invest $3.2 billion in the new company, but that figure is "based on a target price of $20 a share of Clearwire's common stock, and is subject to a post-closing adjustment."

[Via CNN]

We've definitely heard this one before, but the buzz around a proposed $12B WiMAX partnership between Sprint, Clearwire, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Intel, and Google is deafening right now, all based on a report in the Wall Street Journal. The plan is for Sprint to merge its XOHM wireless broadband division with Clearwire, and then take a total of $3.2B in investments from a host of other players: $1.05B from Comcast, $1B from Intel, $550M from Time Warner Cable, $500M from Google, and $100M from Bright House. The resulting company will be worth some $12B, and the WSJ says investors have given their final approval for the deal -- a rumor we've already heard with no meaningful result, so take it with a grain of salt. Or a whole salt lick, actually. We're not certain why Big Cable is so eager to dump money on Sprint after two previous ventures both folded recently, but if this goes down, it's a pretty big boost for WiMAX, which was looking pretty sickly lately. Still, asking consumers to have faith in Sprint and Comcast and Time Warner Cable is pretty ballsy -- between the three of them, they've probably burned everyone in America. We'll see where this goes -- we should have something official pretty soon, according to the Journal.

Never one shy to pick a fight, Comcast is now taking square aim at AT&T, which it alleges is wreaking havoc with its internet service as a result of shoddy installs of the company's U-verse TV service. More specifically, as Ars Technica points out, while both companies use different lines outside of the home (copper coax for Comcast and twisted pair for AT&T), they each use the same coaxial wiring inside the house, which Comcast says causes "feedback" to leak back out onto its network, possibly as a result of the two services using similar frequencies or filters. That, Comcast says, has caused service disruptions for some 20,000 users in the Chicago area, with it particularly affecting those that mix and match Comcast and U-verse services. To put a stop to that, Comcast is now seeking a restraining order against AT&T, although it apparently hasn't received one as of yet. For its part, AT&T not only unsurprisingly says that "the suit lacks merit and that the company intends to vigorously fight it," but that it plans to significantly ramp up the roll out of U-verse in Illinois.

[Via Online Media Daily, thanks Alan M]

Wow, it looks like someone was listening when we said that Pivot wasn't going anywhere just an hour ago -- Comcast, Time Warner (Engadget's parent company) and Cox have all confirmed to the AP that they've backed out of the quad-play partnership, leaving Sprint alone to awkwardly hang out with Advance / Newhouse, which declined to comment. That must be a fun party. Of course, this also means both of the partnerships Sprint and Big Cable got into have now failed, but that doesn't mean the competition in the space is over: both Time Warner and Cox say wireless is still in the cards for their companies, but Pivot was just too complicated a venture. Comcast hasn't said anything yet, but promised a comment tomorrow sometime between 7AM and 11PM.

We're not exactly willing to sign up for even more punishment at the hands of Comcast, but all you masochists in the crowd should take note: GigaOm is reporting that the cable giant is "serious" about offering wireless services and has hired former Telefonica O2 Europe CTO Dave Williams to make it happen. It's not clear what type of wireless is being considered, but it's a good bet Sprint will be involved somehow: Comcast is still in that goofy partnership with Sprint called Pivot that hasn't gone anywhere, the two companies are rumored to be talking about a nationwide WiMAX network, and GigaOm thinks there's a chance it could up and buy the struggling carrier outright. That would be quite a move, but it's all just speculation for now -- we'll let you know if we hear anything solid.

Although we just heard that Comcast's DOCSIS 3.0 rollout was on track for 2009, folks in the Twin Cities region now have exclusive bragging rights for an undisclosed window of time. Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota have become the first markets to have access to an all new "extreme" broadband (or wideband, as it were) connection, which promises 50Mbps down / 5Mbps up. As expected, the carrier isn't being modest about the launch, claiming that users can suck down a 4GB HD movie "in about ten minutes," compared to "more than six hours" on a 1.5Mbps DSL connection. The newfound speed won't come cheap -- for residential users, look to lay down $149.95 per month for the privilege. Even if you aren't springing for the good stuff, current customers in the area will have their existing broadband connections hastened gratis, with 6Mbps / 384Kbps users moving up to 1Mbps uploads and 8Mbps / 768Kbps users seeing 2Mbps uploads. Kudos, Twin Cities -- you just made most of America sick with envy.

[Image courtesy of TheRedWoodMotel]

Although Comcast has been beating around the proverbial bush about its data-meddling ways, it seems the pressure from the recent FCC investigation efforts have forced it to play nice. Reportedly, the firm is getting set to (begrudgingly, we presume) announce that it will "stop targeting BitTorrent on the internet." More specifically, the cable company will purportedly "boost broadband capacity" in order to make things speedier all around, but details on this tidbit were unsurprisingly absent. Nevertheless, BitTorrent has also agreed to make its software "more efficient," but those hoping that Comcast would leave well enough alone are in for even more disappointment. The outfit still plans on managing traffic on the 'net (standard practice, we know), but Tony Werner, executive VP and CTO, noted that it was "working hard on a different approach that is protocol-agnostic during peak periods."

[Thanks, Mike and Kenneth]

As unlikely as this sounds, rivals Time Warner Cable and Comcast are apparently in talks with Sprint and Clearwire over establishing a nationwide WiMAX network. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the companies are scrambling to get a deal wrapped up by CTIA -- which takes place at the beginning of April -- and could see an influx of cash from both Google and Intel in excess of $1 billion. It seems the odd-couple partners are keen to cut into heavyweights Verizon and AT&T's ever-expanding range of at-home and mobile services by offering their own take on a high-speed data and voice system to consumers. Clearly this combination would deflate AT&T and Verizon's big FCC bandwidth-nabs a little (and it explains why the cable players weren't interested in the 700MHz auction), but it's questionable whether this rag-tag team of wild card players would seriously court the public's eye. They say America loves an underdog -- even if it's a gigantic, super-rich, corporate underdog.

[Via mocoNews]

Given Comcast's notoriously shady service, we're not exactly in favor of the company being allowed to ruthlessly torture service any more markets than necessary, but we can see why it might be a little frustrated with the FCC, which has allowed all sorts of giant phone companies to merge in the past few years, yet still recently decided to block cable companies from owning more than 30 percent of the market. Comcast and the FCC have butted heads in the past on similar regulatory issues, but this one should be particularly interesting, since FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is currently the focus of a congressional probe into his handling of the agency. We can actually sort of see Comcast's point -- the FCC probably shouldn't allow giant telco mergers while arbitrarily capping cable ownership, but really we'd prefer a lot more competition and a hell of a lot more focus on customer service from all of these companies instead of yet more lawsuits and paperwork.

[Via TechDirt]

You want to know -- nay, you deserve to know -- which service provides the most HD content. Engadget HD's got the answer, see how your HD provider stacks up.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced at CES last night that his agency will be looking into Comcast's data-meddling ways. "Sure, we're going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked," he said. Per FCC rules Comcast is allowed to use "reasonable traffic management" solutions to keep its network running, but Martin said he thinks Comcast and other ISPs should be required to disclose filtering to customers even if it's found to be reasonable. That's pretty encouraging, but we'll see how this all plays out in the industry -- especially since NBC and AT&T execs were talking excitedly about ISP-based copyright filtering on another stage at CES earlier in the day.

[Via Slashdot]

Comcast is going to kick off their keynote at CES 2008 any minute now and we're here to bring you the latest from the world of the largest cable provider in the US.

9:08AM - Gary Shapiro takes the stage and is excited to have the first chief exec from a cable company. We start out with a little history about Comcast. Now they are the 4th largest phone company.

We can't imagine everyone digging Panasonic / Comcast's AnyPlay Portable DVR, but for those out there lovin' the concept, we've got a sneak peek at the bugger in action courtesy of Mahalo Daily's Veronica Belmont. You know where it's at -- click on and enjoy.

Admit it -- you've got a continual backlog in your DVR that you never get through. Welcome to the downside of massive storage. Until someone invents a longer day, Comcast and Panasonic are making it so that you never have to be parted from your content as a stopgap measure. The Comcast AnyPlay Portable DVR does normal duty as your home HD DVR. But presto-change-o, the P-DVR can be removed from its dock and strapped to the AnyPlay P-DVR TZ-LC100, allowing you to view your content on a 8.5-inch LCD (not HD, it's safe to say). The module also gives you 60GB of recording room for filling up on the go. If this is just what you've been waiting for, say thanks to the now officially renamed tru2way.

Apparently, DirecTV isn't looking to pay its lawyers any overtime over the holiday break, as it has been settling outstanding lawsuits recently like it's going out of style. Just over a week after it put aside its differences with Cox, the satellite provider has decided to make amends with Comcast over a suit filed in May. If you'll recall, DirecTV was quite flustered by Comcast's "survey," which allegedly found that two-thirds of respondents preferred Comcast's HD picture over that offered up by DISH Network / DirecTV. Notably, the actual terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but spokespeople from both outfits affirmed that they were satisfied with the outcome -- which, by the way, does allow Comcast to continue to cite the survey.