Hot on the heels of a report that Comcast will no longer offer Sprint’s wireless service through Pivot, GigaOM has learned that the cable company is creating its own wireless division and has hired the former CTO of Telefonica O2 Europe, Dave Williams, as the unit’s CTO SVP of wireless and technology strategy to “explore wireless options” for Comcast, according to the company. Williams apparently took on the role earlier this month, although no announcement has been made to that effect and Comcast has not responded to a request for comment.
Williams has worked in wireless for several years. Prior to his role at Telefonica he was the VP for strategic planning at Cingular Wireless, a position he rose to in the wake of the SBC Wireless-BellSouth Cellular merger. Before the merger he was in charge of technological operations for the Western region of SBC Wireless and helped integrate the company into the Pacific Bell Mobile network, which he had also helped create.
The nation’s largest cable company appears to be pulling together all the ingredients necessary for the quadruple play of bundled communications services: video, voice, data and wireless. Verizon and AT&T both offer subscribers a quadruple-play plan in certain geographic areas, and cable providers are working to keep up with the Bells. A recent survey from Compete and Fierce Wireless concluded that consumers are ready to purchase wireless service as part of a bundle and are willing to purchase it from a wireline carrier or a cable provider.
A possible route for a true quad-play service from Comcast would be some type of deal with Sprint and Clearwire over WiMAX, which has been rumored for a while. Comcast didn’t participate in the recent 700MHz auction, so if it is getting out of its partnership with Pivot (apparently customer demand hasn’t been all that exciting), it will have to find some way of offering wireless. A WiMAX joint venture, a buyout of Sprint or T-Mobile, or perhaps some crazy satellite scheme could justify the creation of wireless division at Comcast be some of the “options” Comcast is exploring. Because at the end of the day, a company doesn’t hire someone with Williams’ experience building and managing networks to resell wireless service from a separate provider.
30 comments so far
12:08 PM PT
Let’s not forget that Pivot is/was just one part of the cable industry’s wireless efforts. SpectrumCo, the MSO consortium of which Sprint was formerly a member, spent $2.37 billion for 137 licenses in the AWS auction in late 2006. More than half that money came out of Comcast’s pockets.
SpectrumCo has 20 MHz of quality spectrum covering of most of the US population. So the cable operators don’t need Sprint, T-Mobile, MSV, Terrestar, or anyone else to build a national wireless offering. They just need the willingness (bravery? idiocy?) to spend the money on build-out.
SpectrumCo’s AWS press release is here:
http://tinyurl.com/5ttbbr
There’s a map of SpectrumCo’s holdings here:
http://tinyurl.com/64dbrj
12:34 PM PT
Josh, you are right. I did forget about SpectrumCo, which is a possibility. Here’s a link to our coverage about Sprint existing the effort: http://gigaom.com/2007/08/02/sprint-to-leave-spectrumco/
2:37 PM PT
According to Phonescoop, Comcast, along with the rest of the Cable companies, have just pulled out from their Joint Venture with Sprint, so this may not involve Sprint, as you assumed.
3:09 PM PT
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
3:34 PM PT
[...] quite a move, but it’s all just speculation for now — we’ll let you know if we hear anything solid.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
3:34 PM PT
[...] quite a move, but it’s all just speculation for now — we’ll let you know if we hear anything solid.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
3:34 PM PT
[...] quite a move, but it’s all just speculation for now — we’ll let you know if we hear anything solid.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
3:35 PM PT
[...] quite a move, but it’s all just speculation for now — we’ll let you know if we hear anything solid.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
3:38 PM PT
[...] quite a move, but it’s all just speculation for now — we’ll let you know if we hear anything solid.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
3:38 PM PT
[...] quite a move, but it’s all just speculation for now — we’ll let you know if we hear anything solid.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
3:40 PM PT
[...] quite a move, but it’s all just speculation for now — we’ll let you know if we hear anything solid.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
3:40 PM PT
[...] quite a move, but it’s all just speculation for now — we’ll let you know if we hear anything solid.Read | Permalink | Email [...]
3:46 PM PT
Boy, you gotta love how the cable companies have positioned this one… “We pulled out of the joint venture…”
If people only knew the truth
4:40 PM PT
A fifth carrier in some markets and perhaps 6th in some. Om - start writing broadbandits 2.0
5:33 PM PT
[...] Comcast Is Serious About Wireless - GigaOM [...]
5:50 PM PT
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
5:54 PM PT
[...] Gigaom addthis_url = [...]
6:12 PM PT
[...] Comcast Is Serious About Wireless - GigaOM [...]
7:03 PM PT
[...] companies moving into the wireless space? There’s certainly been a lot of buzz on that front [...]
7:59 PM PT
Maybe they just decided to bring back Comcast Metrophone? Everything old is new again.
3:20 AM PT
[...] GigaOm: Comcast Is Serious About Wireless [...]
4:53 AM PT
[...] Comcast Is Serious About Wireless [...]
5:32 AM PT
[...] to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!What does it mean when a company says that they plan to “explore wireless options”?. It would probably mean just that under normal circumstances. However, given that Comcast has [...]
2:25 PM PT
[...] Read « Cable companies drop Pivot, break up with Sprint Nextel [...]
3:00 PM PT
[...] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments [...]
3:12 AM PT
[...] Gigaom says that Comcast is serious about wireless. The company is exploring its options for wireless offerings. Read about it here. [...]
6:37 AM PT
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11:22 AM PT
[...] a report that Comcast will no longer offer Sprint’s wireless service, GigaOM reports that the cable giant hired the former CTO of Telefonica O2 Europe, Dave Williams, as the [...]
2:36 PM PT
[...] to do a deal with Google, Sprint and Clearwire to build a national WiMAX network. And Comcast has apparently hired the former CTO of Telefonica O2 Europe to investigate options for the company’s [...]
2:44 PM PT
[...] GigaOm is reporting that Comcast has created its own wireless division and is bringing the pieces together to jump into the wireless biz to offer quadruple play bundle competition (TV, landline, internet, wireless) against Verizon and AT&T. Speculation is that they could buddy up with a WiMax deal, or flat-out buy Sprint (more likely) or T-Mobile (less likely). Usually more competition is more better, but not sure what’ll come out of this Pandora’s box. I’m sure the FCC will love it though. Update: A tipster tells us that the wireless move will be under their Fancast brand, which is currently the name of their online video site. Smart, avoids the negative Comcast connotations. [GigaOM] [...]
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