DirecTV Not Interested In Clearwire....YetWill wait to see if it can fight off the sharks first...
01:36PM Friday May 30 2008 by Karl Bodetags: business · alternatives · bundles · DIRECTVGiven I still remember the
carnage from DirecTV's failed stints as both satellite broadband and DSL provider, I was surprised when the company (and new owner Liberty Media) started showing renewed interest
in becoming a broadband provider. The company dipped their toes in the idea by signing a
reseller agreement with Clearwire, and offering broadband via powerline (BPL) in a
now defunct Texas deployment.
I had wondered if, with the formation of the new
ultra-mega-uber-Clearwire, DirecTV would consider offering WiMax and satellite TV bundles. Apparently not. Judging from this
Telecommunications Online piece, DirecTV's reformed broadband ambitions will remain squarely in the "yeah well maybe, sorta, dunno" category.
One place DirecTV won�t look to partner is the new Clearwire, the WiMAX play developed by Sprint and the old Clearwire with money from cable players Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks as well as interested parties like Google and Intel. "The Sprint and Clearwire configuration has some long road to hoe but we certainly aren�t implying that we won�t continue to track it, evaluate it, see what happens," Carey said. "It has a lot of steps to take."
Translated from PR speak: they (quite justly) aren't sure if the new joint-venture will survive deployment hurdles and competition from Verizon and AT&T LTE networks, so they're not participating just yet. Oddly though they were enthusiastic about BPL, and that was always a troubled technology that seems to be doing an epic, 2008 belly flop into the pool of telecom failure. Their sudden skepticism probably could have come in handy earlier.
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