What's On Rupert's Mind?
Earlier in the week, Rupert Murdoch said News Corp. would spend up to $1 billion on a wireless broadband network in the US, and that the company would offer more details of its plans in the next few months. We noted then that $1 billion really wasn’t much to spend on a nationwide network, leading to speculation that the company will enter an MVNO arrangement with a 3G carrier, or set up a joint venture with an existing broadband operator, such as Craig McCaw’s Clearwire. Broadband Reports points to a Financial Times analysis of what the News Corp. plans might be. It covers much of the same ground, but raises one interesting point: Murdoch said that speeds faster than 5 Mbps weren’t necessary. Dropping $1 billion to build out a 5-megabit network seems not just unlikely, but hardly worth it as well, and the company’s shareholders would probably agree.
