While things are still in the development stage, it looks like cable TV has a vested interested in offering wireless internet to all of it’s customers, which may pave the way for a wireless delivery of TV in the not so distant future.
On Wednesday, Sprint Nextel announced a merger with little known Clearwire Corporation. This company is a WiMax based company, the objective is to provide broadband speed to customers with absolutely wireless coverage. WiMax works similarly to cellular internet, but with much faster download speeds, with the promise to do nothing but get faster. This is much like the already existing cellular service that is provided to some cell phones from AT&T and Verizon, but Clearwire plans to take this inside the home so that users will be free from wires on all of their devices.
This project carries a large price tag. The company valued itself at 14.5 billion dollars according to Reuters.com, but some investors believe that the price is set too high, which caused a 14.8 percent drop in stock values. However, many large bidders are not fooled by the drop in price, with big name investors such as Time Warner Cable, Google, Intel, Comcast, and smaller cable companies such as Bright House.
This is a complete gamble by the already feeble Sprint Nextel Corporation. They have invested a large sum of money in this deal and will be severely damaged if this falls through mid production. They have already tried to make this merger a year ago and it fell through because the agreement was too complex. Things are different this time, but many are afraid of history repeating itself.
I think this is a fantastic idea. Right now Clearwire already has the technology in place, they are operating in a few cities around the United States. Intel is placing the technology in all of their new chips that they produce, and the cable companies are turning to this technology to provide a more reliable means of service to their clients.
Think about it. Imagine that you are driving on a road trip with your friends and come upon a major storm. Traditionally you could pull over, or you could try and find a local radio signal to see the severity of the storm, or you could have one of your passengers open their computer to connect to the WiMax network and find out exactly the problem is using several sources of information that are constantly updated. This has potential to keep business alive all during travel, where internet conference calls can be made while people are on the way to the convention or to their business meeting.
This technology will blanket the entire country in wireless internet and eventually cable. People will be able to open their computers or cell phone anywhere and connect to the rest of the world at broad band speeds. I know that there are times when I need to get away from technology, and escape to the mountains, because I know that there is no service there. Now, there’s the opportunity to take the internet with you, just in case you happen to need. After all there’s always the off button.
