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Qwest Ditches Sprint for Verizon Wireless
05 May, 2008
Qwest is announcing a new five year wireless resale arrangement with Verizon Wireless. Qwest was previously partnered with Sprint for a similar wireless deal, which obviously didn’t work out. Qwest CEO Ed Mueller announced early on in his tenure that he was unhappy with the current Sprint deal. The terms of the agreement are somewhat sketchy, but here are some interesting tidbits:
- Qwest customers will have access to the full line of Verizon Wireless handsets, smartphones and BlackBerry devices, as well as high-speed broadband wireless services for e-mail, Internet access and multimedia services
- Residential customers will be able to choose “wireless only” and be billed directly by Verizon Wireless, or include Verizon Wireless service as part of a Qwest bundle with their home phone, Internet and video services, and receive one bill from Qwest for all services
- Once billing systems are coordinated, residential customers will be able to elect to have their Verizon Wireless service charges included on their Qwest bill
Wireless has been a crutch for Qwest, and resale agreements, while not being ideal, provide the best remedy when nothing else is available. Qwest appears to be warm to resale arrangements. They’ve very publicly said they would rather resell DirecTV than build their own triple play network. Resale seems to be there mid-term, and maybe long-term, strategy for wireless as well. Maybe Verizon offered them a better deal than Sprint. Maybe Qwest sees Sprint as the Titanic and didn’t want to get caught on the top deck listening to the string quartet band while sinking with them. Qwest obviously needs a wireless play to remain competitive. Time will tell if this is the right move. The reality suggests, it might have been their only move.
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Is Qwest showing some leadership with resale, or is it they just are afraid to spend money on their own network. They are now reselling the two services that other large telcos are sinking a ton of money into - wireless and video. This is one of those things where they could come out looking like geniuses because they gain commissions on those sales and don't have to invest billions on their network. Or they could just as easily come out looking like idiots for not investing in their core network assets, and are handcuffed with their partners. Which is it?
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Clearwire Outlines 4G World Domination Plans
12 Jun, 2008
Clearwire is feeling quite confident these days. The emerging WiMAX provider held an investor conference and outlined their plan for 4G domination. We're "building the communications company of the future, today," says Clearwire CEO Ben Wolf. Clearwire chief strategy officer Scott Richardson calls it "the second coming of the Internet." It was quite the WiMAX pep rally. Clearwire executives say they intend to build a seamless nationwide 4G network way ahead of their competitors, namely Verizon and AT&T.
From a powerpointware perspective, the strategy looks real impressive. Clearwire intends to offer a five product suite of services which will include residential voice and broadband, mobile voice and broadband, and mobile entertainment. They intend to leverage their investor partners considerably, gaining access to tens of millions of existing subscriber relationships immediately. With their cable company partners, they intend to extend the cable entertainment experience "into the palms of consumer's hands." They intend to utilize Google's Android platform for a suite of "compelling" mobile applications. Intel will contribute by powering millions of end user devices and do for WiMAX what it did for Wi-Fi, in effect bringing it to the mainstream. Wolf says that the average consumer's total household spend on communications, ranging from $109-$258, is up for grabs, and they intend to capture as much of it as possible.
Verizon Wireless role in Qwest broadband black holes
An angle not addressed in this story is whether Qwest intends to use Verizon Wireless Broadband in areas where it has not yet deployed its wireline-based broadband services.
Verizon Wireless Broadband is already moving into some of AT&T'S service areas where AT&T does not have the wireline infrastructure to provide broadband.