Cable May Get WiMAX Option
Operators May Get to Use Sprint’s Wireless Network
By Karen Brown -- Multichannel News, 8/13/2006 8:00:00 PM
Time Warner Cable, Comcast Corp., Bright House Networks and Cox Communications Inc. may gain another option for providing wireless services with Sprint Nextel Corp., which announced last week that it planned to spend $3.1 billion on a new mobile network based on WiMAX broadband technology.
Sprint will invest $1 billion in 2007 and between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in 2008 to build the network. The company plans to start market trials by the end of 2007, with full deployment reaching as many as 100 million U.S. residents in 2008.
The telco ended months of speculation last week by announcing WiMAX would be its choice for this fourth-generation wireless network and services. Time Warner, Comcast, Bright House and Cox deferred comment to Sprint.
| Fast Fact |
|---|
| What is WiMAX? |
| SOURCE: WiMAX.com |
| WiMAX is a wireless digital communications system, also known as IEEE 802.16, intended for wireless “metropolitan area networks.” WiMAX can provide broadband wireless access up to 30 miles for fixed stations, and 3-10 miles for mobile stations. In contrast, the WiFi/802.11 wireless local area network standard is limited in most cases to only 100-300 feet. |
Sprint provided few details, but emphasized that the WiMAX network could play into products developed under its joint venture with the cable operators to provide wireless communications services.
“The cable JV already gives the four [operators] access to the 4G services that Sprint will deploy,” said spokesman John Polivka.
The Overland Park, Kan.-based telco had been testing several technologies, but settled on mobile WiMAX using the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.’s 802.16e-2005 technical standard.
Depending on how densely a network of base stations is configured, this form of WiMAX can theoretically provide up to 15 Megabits per second capacity per base station, according to the WiMAX Forum industry group.
Sprint will now work with Intel Corp., Motorola Inc. and Samsung Corp. to develop a nationwide mobile WiMAX network, as well as the chipsets needed to power portable devices that will use it to send and receive multimedia content and communications.
Those consumer devices will tune to Sprint’s 2.5 Gigahertz spectrum, which reaches 85% of the households in the top 100 major U.S. markets.
Sprint has not made clear what types of business or residential services it might field using the WiMAX network, but the options range from high-speed data and voice services in areas where its existing wireline network won’t reach, or a wireless television video broadcast service.
A broadband Internet access service is likely, and that could compete with cable operators’ own Internet access services, Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Laszlo said. He pointed out that wireless service provider Clearwire has already done just that, launching voice and data service using its 2.5 GHz spectrum and a pre-WiMAX technology in 27 tier two markets.
That kind of service “is potentially a good substitute for cable modem and DSL,” Laszlo said.
At the same time, during a recent earnings call, Sprint executives pointed out the growing cable business of providing voice-over-Internet Protocol service. Sprint has landed contracts with operators including Mediacom Communications Corp. and Time Warner Cable to provide VoIP interconnection services linking to the public switched telephone network, and earlier this month, the company extended its contract with Time Warner in 14 more markets reaching 28 million homes passed.
Sprint’s interconnection services now cover 1.2 million cable subscribers, and it expects that will rise to 2.5 million customers by next year.
The telco “is going to have to be very careful,” Laszlo noted. “Sprint does probably need to be judicious and diplomatic in how it productizes the WiMAX service.’’
But, he said, Sprint has “to reinvent itself and explore every possible avenue, especially given a network buildout that is going to cost between $3 billion and $4 billion dollars.”
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