Clearwire, DirecTV and EchoStar now can offer “triple play” bundles of voice, video and Internet thanks to 2 distribution agreements revealed Thurs., Clearwire said. DirecTV and EchoStar each signed agreements with Clearwire to sell the ISP’s wireless broadband, Clearwire said. Under the agreement, Clearwire also should be able to sell the satellite companies’ video services. But it’s unclear which satellite service Clearwire will offer customers -- if not both. Unlike major telcos, Clearwire likely will sell its “triple play” components unbundled, Clearwire spokeswoman Helen Chung told Communications Daily. Clearwire did not give the agreements’ terms. The pacts do not mark “a complete solution” for the satellite companies, given Clearwire’s limited coverage, Pali Research’s Walter Piecyk said. But if Clearwire succeeds at rolling out its network everywhere it has spectrum, “it would offer a differentiated service to cable operators based on its mobility and it could remain as a potential acquisition candidate,” he said. DirecTV previously has flopped at adding broadband to its service, trying a satellite broadband service and signing agreements with telcos, Piecyk said: “Broadband over satellite is plagued with latency and speed issues and the telephone companies are in the process of building fiber networks that would enable their own triple play service.” The ability of DirecTV and ClearWire to offer a wireless bundle to compete against cable and telcos will also benefit infrastructure contractor MasTec, ThinkEquity Partners said. DirecTV is MasTec’s largest customer, it said.
Cisco and IBM will collaborate on telecom software that cuts implementation and maintenance costs, the companies said Thurs. Cisco will add IBM technology to its service provider product portfolio; IBM Tivoli software will integrate with Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA), they said. Cisco Assurance Management Solution, combining ANA tech with Tivoli software, ships next month, they said. Managing different network elements in the same system can be a major challenge, even when made by the same company, IBM Tivoli Software CTO Alan Ganek told us. The new IBM/Cisco technology aims to simplify management of such IP-based services by offering a “more uniform structure,” he said. Ganek didn’t disclose financial terms.
YouTube integration will “democratize” presidential debates since anyone can submit questions, CNN Senior Vp David Bohrman said: “I am hoping for thousands of video questions to be submitted.” The video format also will provide greater context for candidates than e-mail or other conduits, YouTube editor Steve Grove said. CNN and YouTube will host 2 presidential debates, moderated by Anderson Cooper -- a July 23 Democratic debate at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C., and a Sept. 17 Republican debate in Fla., CNN Pres. Jonathan Klein said. The DNC sanctioned the Democratic debate; the RNC has not done so for the Sept. 17 debate, he said. Location details for the Republican debate are coming soon, Bohrman said. Users will upload 30-second videos to YouTube, with CNN exercising control over which questions are used in debate, he said. Questions, not to be revealed beforehand, will not be picked on the basis of user ratings or popularity, he said. CNN wants “trigger questions” and queries more inventive than someone talking to the camera, he said. The 2-hour Charleston debate likely will include 20-30 YouTube questions, Bohrman said. Debate moderator Cooper will introduce clips, then give candidates a chance to answer, he said. CNN chose YouTube to host video submissions because “they are great at handling significant amounts of [uploaded] video,” Bohrman said: “We're going to take advantage of that sort of plumbing infrastructure that they have.” CNN.com will link to the videos from its website, he said. YouTube doesn’t have to take special steps to support the uploads, YouTube CEO Chad Hurley said: “We're already dealing with streaming hundreds of millions of videos on a daily basis and we're prepared.”
Wireless companies should “get past” political friction in spectrum dealings with the FCC, and “get together from a national perspective,” Northrop Grumman Vp/CTO Robert Brammer said at the WCA conference. Wireless network security is a major safety and homeland security issue, and requires involvement beyond the govt.’s, he said: “We need much higher awareness of security issues. Don’t underestimate these security threats.”
AT&T will go after content pirates with new technology it’s developing with Viacom and other Hollywood companies, AT&T Senior Exec. Vp-External & Legislative Affairs James Cicconi told the L.A. Times. AT&T and the entertainment companies met last week to discuss the weapon, he said. “We are pleased that AT&T has decided to take such a strong, proactive position in protecting copyrights,” Viacom said: “AT&T’s support of strong anti-piracy efforts will be instrumental in developing a growing and vibrant digital marketplace and will help ensure that they have a steady stream of great creative content to deliver to their consumers.” Others voiced fear that such a mechanism would throttle users’ freedom of access to Internet content. Plans for copyright screens “fly in the face of the expectations of consumers to use their material more flexibly,” said Public Knowledge Pres. Gigi Sohn: “By attempting to act as the copyright police, the company is going to make its customers angry, even in a market in which customers have little choice of providers for high-speed Internet service.” Critics shouldn’t make assumptions about what the technology will be, an AT&T spokeswoman told Communications Daily; it doesn’t exist yet and last week’s meeting was “just discussion,” she said. In developing the screen, AT&T aims to balance Viacom and other companies’ needs to guard copyrighted data against consumers’ right to get legal material, she said.
Sprint Nextel will pay $312.5 million to acquire affiliate Northern PCS, Sprint said Wed. The price includes debt assumption. The purchase will be the 7th of Sprint’s 10 former PCS affiliates that it has acquired. Sprint has affiliate agreements with 2, Shentel and Swifttel, and is in a legal dispute with the other, iPCS. The company also recently bought former Nextel partners. Sprint expects to complete the acquisition in Q3 2007, subject to state approval. As with previous PCS buys, the FCC will not likely be involved, a Sprint spokesman said. Financial analyst firm Standard & Poor’s said its ratings and outlook for Sprint Nextel are unaffected: “Given the size of the transaction, there will not be any meaningful impact on leverage.”
The competitiveness of Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless will be hurt by the need to develop workarounds if the ITC’s Qualcomm ban isn’t overturned, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast told Communications Daily. Investors say substitute devices could be created in 2 quarters, but carriers say it could take 1-2 years, Arbogast said. The reality is “probably somewhere in the middle,” she said.
AT&T’s “pure IP” backbone upgrade will be a “great platform for integrated, converged services,” Group Pres.- Operations Support John Stankey said Mon. at the Bear Stearns Conference in N.Y.C. And the wireless network is due for an upgrade, he said, predicting 3G coverage in “nearly all 100 top markets” by year-end.
Court costs, inefficiency and “degraded” marketing have dogged Vonage the last 12 months, Vonage CFO John Rego said Mon. at the Bear-Stearns Conference in N.Y.C. The company hopes new ads and services, coupled with a possible 4th Circuit overturn of the Verizon patent infringement decision, will make Vonage profitable, he said.
Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) judges Mon. denied all motions for rehearing by webcasters hoping to reverse a March 2 ruling to raise fees they pay to stream music online. The decision came as webcasters, musicians and independent record labels announced formation of a SaveNetRadio Coalition to rally support.