IP Democracy: Comcast, Cox, Time Warner to Start Mobile Voice Tests

The Hollywood Reporter’s Andrew Wallenstein has this extended, excellent piece on the cable-telco battle of the bundles. Buried in the article, however, is something new to me: Comcast, Time Warner and Cox will start this month testing the sale of mobile voice service as part of a new, expanded quadruple-play package.

This potentially killer combination flows from the $200 million dollar-backed consortium formed last year by Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications and Advance/Newhouse with Sprint-Nextel. According to the piece, Comcast and Cox will trial a mobile voice service in selected markets including Boston, Austin, Texas, and Portland, OR.

The inclusion of a pure mobile voice option is a surprise given that the cable companies have practically dismissed the idea that they might add a mobile voice option to their triple-play bundles. Instead, execs at Comcast and Time Warner have said repeatedly that they intend to pursue value-added mobile services through their partnership with Sprint, pioneering the idea of a “third screen,” which would include such things as multichannel video on phones and the ability to program PVRs remotely.

Initial plans called for the “third screen” function to operate over Sprint’s Powervision EV-DO network. The consortium is also actively participating in the AWS broadband wireless auctions at the FCC, having put up $637 million to be eligible to bid on the valuable spectrum.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on August 1, 2006 10:30 PM to IP Democracy