Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:22:52 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090922/0338406275.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090922/0338406275.shtml support for net neutrality legislation the PR and lobbying machines of the major telco and cable providers have cranked up, putting out all sorts of fear mongering letters and reports about the damage such a law will do. There was one interesting exception. Some noticed that wireless broadband provider Clearwire appeared to support the FCC's position (though, I'd argue that the statement's wording is a bit vague). While the article at Moconews suggests this "isn't surprising," I'm wondering how everyone seems to have forgotten that Clearwire, in the past, was one of the most aggressive broadband providers to support a non neutral network. A few years back, it was blocking VoIP and streaming media and proudly promised to block any type of traffic or application it didn't like. It also tried to get VoIP providers to get "certified" before promising they could work on Clearwire's network. Of course, plenty can change in a few years, but it's quite noteworthy that Clearwire may have changed its tune on net neutrality entirely.

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]]> that's-funny... http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090922/0338406275 Tue, 4 Nov 2008 18:30:07 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081104/1612362737.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20081104/1612362737.shtml free up television "white space" spectrum. While the NAB made a last ditch effort to stop this, the FCC made the right call here. This spectrum can be put to much better use, which can have a huge impact on increasing innovation and wireless technologies. This is a big win. The FCC also approved Sprint and Clearwire's deal to set up a joint venture for their WiMax operations, as well as allowing Verizon to buy Alltel. Both of those deals make sense as well, so it's good to see them approved.

Other than that, the FCC said that it's going to start looking into the pricing policies of cable companies... and Verizon. Who's missing? FCC boss Kevin Martin's best friends over at AT&T. To be honest, while it's quite likely that the cable companies and the telcos (yes, including AT&T) are abusing their oligopoly position, the answer shouldn't be having the FCC act as a watchdog over pricing policies, but for a better system to be set up that encourages real competition. In the meantime, though, can someone explain why AT&T was left out of the bunch?

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]]> election-day-festivities http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20081104/1612362737 Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:12:30 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080725/1616331798.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080725/1616331798.shtml filed papers with the FCC opposing Sprint and Clearwire's plan to merge their WiMax divisions, which was announced a few months ago (found via Broadband Reports. Of course, AT&T has a chummy relationship with the FCC, who has allowed it to merge with telco after telco without many real conditions (and even telling it that it can ignore some of the conditions it agreed to to get those mergers approved).

In this case, AT&T claims that it isn't really opposed to the merger, but it's filing opposition papers because it feels that Sprint and Clearwire aren't receiving the same level of scrutiny that AT&T received in its mergers, specifically with regards to it spectrum holdings. This seems like grasping at straws by AT&T just to throw some sort of extra paperwork roadblock in the path of the new Clearwire, which is an obvious competitor.

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]]> good-luck-with-that http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080725/1616331798 Mon, 9 Jun 2008 18:37:38 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080609/0255371342.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080609/0255371342.shtml
So, don't read too much into the fact that a bunch of companies in the WiMax space have agreed to put together a patent pool under the amusingly inaccurately named "Open Patent Alliance." The companies involved, Cisco, Intel, Samsung, Sprint, Alcatel-Lucent, and Clearwire are all betting big on WiMax deployments, so they know it's in their best interest to get the licensing out of the way. But you'll notice that there are a lot of companies missing -- including Wi-LAN who has been claiming that it owns all the key patents over WiMax technology for years. The patent pool sounds nice, but it's certainly not going to diminish the number of patent lawsuits that arise over WiMax technology. If anything, it's just going to make all those other companies even angrier.

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]]> somebody's-missing.... http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080609/0255371342 Mon, 12 May 2008 19:19:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080512/1819491094.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080512/1819491094.shtml WiMax joint venture with Clearwire, Sprint knew that the big affiliate iPCS would be upset. In fact, last week, Sprint sued iPCS in Delaware seeking a declaratory judgment that the new joint venture did not break their agreement with iPCS. That lawsuit appears to have been filed slightly before iPCS filed its own lawsuit in Illinois against Sprint. Chances are the two suits will be combined in some manner, but it's yet another hurdle that Sprint needs to clear before it can get this new WiMax offering off the ground. Sprint may have a decent claim here -- as the agreement with iPCS is focused only on 1.9GHz spectrum, whereas the WiMax network is on 2.5GHz spectrum. Either way, it seems like these affiliate relationships may be a lot more pain than they're worth.

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]]> bad-blood http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080512/1819491094 Tue, 6 May 2008 20:01:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080506/1740131048.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080506/1740131048.shtml fully break off their WiMax agreement. It simply made too much sense for them to get back together. At the same time, everyone also knew that Comcast and Time Warner were talking to Sprint to help fund WiMax in order to get a wireless pipe with which to compete with the telcos. And... oh yeah, given how much money Intel had pumped into WiMax to make everyone think it just had to be the next generation wireless system, there was no way it was going to let Sprint and Clearwire's WiMax plans collapse. Finally, toss in the fact that Google was known to be interested in Sprint's WiMax plans, and it's not hard to figure out what is actually happening...

Yes, indeed, Intel, Google, Comcast and Time Warner are teaming up to pump $3.2 billion into a joint venture that would merge Sprint and Clearwire's WiMax operations under the Clearwire brand name. This is certainly no surprise given all the earlier stories, but given how many problems have surrounded WiMax as well as earlier attempts for the cable companies to offer wireless services, don't expect this new venture to go smoothly right from the beginning. That doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do. Most of the companies involved didn't really have much of a choice but to do this. Of course, in all this mess, Sprint and Clearwire squandered a portion of the lead they held over AT&T and Verizon. While it will still take a while for AT&T and Verizon to get LTE plans into motion, all this futzing by Sprint and Clearwire took away some of the huge lead it should have had.

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]]> let's-try-this-again http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080506/1740131048 Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:35:22 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080326/100451655.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080326/100451655.shtml teamed up with Sprint with plenty of fanfare to provide mobile phone service and to compete against Verizon and AT&T? Whatever happened to that? Oh, right, it went nowhere. So, perhaps don't get too worked up over the news today that cable companies Comcast and Time Warner might be teaming up with Sprint and Clearwire to fund their troubled WiMax efforts. If you recall, Sprint and Clearwire had a huge deal (with hundreds of millions in backing from Intel) to WiMax the nation, and that deal also fell apart though everyone knows they've been seeing each other on the sly. They know they can't do it alone, so certainly having some support from Comcast and Time Warner could help move this project forward, but there have been so many false starts and stumbles that you can bet this isn't going to go as smoothly as all the players are about to suggest.

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]]> let's-see-how-this-works... http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080326/100451655 Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:22:00 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071214/021754.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071214/021754.shtml end of Sprint and Clearwire's WiMax partnership was bad news for just about everyone involved. Almost no one could come up with a good reason for Sprint and Clearwire to end the partnership -- and now it appears that, just like A-Rod returning to the Yankees after a brief breakup, the rumors now are that Sprint and Clearwire are getting back together over WiMax. This really isn't all that surprising. Both companies had to realize it made more sense to work together on this than going it alone -- and with Verizon Wireless finally deciding to go with LTE for its next generation solution, both Sprint and Clearwire finally realized that they are going to have some competition out there for wireless broadband, and it would help both companies not to slow down the rollout. At least Scott Boras won't make any more money off of this deal. Update: Then again, maybe not. Apparently the original report on the potential of Sprint and Clearwire getting back together is incorrect. Still, it wouldn't be surprising if it did eventually happen anyway.

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]]> ain't-dead-yet! http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20071214/021754 Fri, 9 Nov 2007 06:55:00 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071109/003505.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071109/003505.shtml hype around the technology well before it actually existed. There was so much hype that many (including reporters) simply claimed it existed when it did not. Even some companies referred to their non-WiMax wireless broadband solutions as WiMax. However, with Intel pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into it and Sprint deciding to bet on WiMax, we hoped that perhaps it could actually live up to its hype someday (though, not for a long time, certainly). When Sprint agreed to team up with Clearwire to build a single nationwide WiMax network, it seemed even more reasonable a possibility that it could actually come to be. Splitting the cost of the infrastructure made a tremendous amount of sense. So much sense... that it might not be happening. Due to Sprint's recent troubles (where it's even considering ditching WiMax altogether, due to some incredibly shortsighted investor pressure) Sprint and Clearwire have called off their agreement to work together on a nationwide WiMax network.

This is bad news for just about everyone (with the possible temporary exception of the other US mobile operators and baby bells). Without the combined effort, it makes it even more questionable whether either one will be able to go much further with WiMax, let alone build their own nationwide WiMax network. Sprint may end up dropping the WiMax effort altogether (again, due to shortsighted investors) and Clearwire may just be in trouble. It also hurts anyone who was hoping for real wireless broadband in the near future. While the other mobile operators and landline broadband providers may breathe a sigh of relief, it means that those companies can slow down their own plans for next generation services, as the competition won't be as fierce and they won't seem quite as late to the game. There is still some talk that something else could potentially happen with Sprint spinning off its WiMax network plans and merging that with Clearwire, but without the strong backing of Sprint, the plan is less likely to get as far. This isn't the death of WiMax, but it certainly opens up the opportunity for some other wireless broadband offerings to take away some of the WiMax hype.

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]]> slow-it-down http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20071109/003505 Tue, 2 Oct 2007 16:59:03 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071002/020714.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071002/020714.shtml focus on WiMax, it could make use of more 2.5 GHz spectrum. It already owns a bunch, but not enough. So, of course, now that this spectrum is suddenly valuable to Sprint, schools are scrambling to renew expired licenses to the spectrum they valued at absolutely nothing, in order to turn around and license it to Sprint for quite a bit of money. In other words, you have a natural resource given to schools absolutely free. They didn't value it and didn't have any use for it at all. Then, a company comes along that actually can do something useful with that spectrum, and the schools are suddenly setting roadblocks in their way. That doesn't seem like a particularly useful thing -- but thanks to another set of gov't granted monopolies, combined with a complete lack of a comprehensive spectrum allocation policy from the FCC, it's what we're left with.

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]]> worthless-spectrum...-oh-you-want-it? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20071002/020714