Time Warner Cable and Sprint Corp. (FON) are close to a deal that would let the cable company offer cellphone service on a trial basis early next year, Wednesday's Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.
An alliance with Sprint would make the Time Warner Inc. (TWX) unit the only major cable company to offer cellular service and would give the partners the Holy Grail of telecom: the so-called quadruple play of television, high-speed Internet access, and wired and wireless phone service.
Neither company would confirm that a deal is imminent, although a Time Warner spokesman did say that "we are working on plans for a wireless trial with Sprint." A Sprint spokesman said: "We continue to be in talks with our cable partners."
While the offering would first be limited to a single trial market -- Kansas City, Mo. -- during the first quarter of 2005, it could lead to a major escalation of the battle between cable operators and telephone companies.
Time Warner, the country's second-largest cable operator with nearly 11 million subscribers, recently finished launching traditional landline telephone service using Internet technology in all 31 of its markets. The company expects to have more than 200,000 landline phone subscribers by the end of the year and is adding customers at a rate of 10,000 a week. Company executives haven't been shy in recent months about their desire to offer cellular service as well.
Telephone companies and cable operators are increasingly competing with each other by offering customers a complete telecommunications "bundle," including television, high-speed Internet, landline telephone and now cellphone services. The theory: A customer getting multiple services from a single provider -- on one bill, at a discount -- will be less likely to defect.
Wall Street Journal Staff Reporters Jesse Drucker and Peter Grant contributed to this report.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires "
Posted to the site on 29th December 2004
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/11561.php