Thursday, November 03, 2005

M:Metrics: Sprint Makes the Most of Potential Cable Tie-Up

Seamus McAteer posts at the M:Metrics Blog about the deal Comcast, the cable division of Time Warner, Cox Communications and Advance/Newhouse Communications announced to deliver cell phone services through Sprint Nextel to create a "quadruple play" of voice, video, Internet and wireless products. McAteer believes it's a big deal for Sprint since "Verizon and Cingular can't collaborate with competitors of their landline parents, who will struggle to offer multi-channel video services. T-Mobile just doesn't have the spectrum or network roadmap, to support resellers."

He believes it is:

about a lot more than bundled billing. It creates a new converged platform for dynamic access to content that will conform to the context of the user. A new battle will ensue amongst he major portals--Google, MSN, AOL, and Yahoo!--to be part of unified interface. Against this backdrop, Google's courtship of AOL and Comcast takes on a different hue.