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Mobile & Wireless
DirecTV’s wireless play still in limbo
Satellite provider’s watching new Clearwire; cheering for telcos
by Jim Barthold
It wouldn’t hurt DirecTV to come up with a triple play bundle of
some sort to mesh with its HD- and sports-rich television
packages, but don’t expect the satellite provider to jump into
the WiMAX space, an executive said during the Lehman
Brothers Worldwide Wireless and Wireline Conference.
“I think all along our goal on broadband, including WiMAX,
has been to ensure customers have choices in broadband and
telephony that are compatible with DirecTV,” said Chase
Carey, president/CEO of DirecTV Group. “That said, if there
was an investment to be made or a role to take in a
broadband solution like WiMAX, I think we’d look at it, but
with care, recognizing the challenges and issues in the
broadband business.”
Broadband is tough.
“Broadband and telephony are much more commoditized
businesses, much more geared towards competing on price,”
he said. “Television being much richer is really the value end
of the equation.”
That leaves DirecTV looking for a partner to bring in those
broadband elements and that takes the company back to the
arms of incumbent telcos who, when they’re not rolling out
competitive U-Verse or FiOS TV offerings, need their own
video component.
“The big telcos, AT&T and Verizon—outside the FiOS footprint—
will continue to develop ways that truly are compatible whether
we have deals or not … and continue to drive things that are
good for us, like mobility into the marketplace through
cellular the like,” he said.
A relationship with what had been BellSouth ended April 1 and
there’s a possibility a new one could blossom with new
BellSouth boss AT&T, which is re-evaluating its satellite
relationship with EchoStar’s DISH Network. Verizon is already a
partner.
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.”
And a lot of people to keep happy as it takes those steps.
“The list of six-party partnerships that have been raging
successes is pretty short,” he said ruefully. “You have a lot of
competing agendas there both within some of those places
and between some of those places in terms of what they want
to do.”
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