Is Wireless Video Delivery by the MSOs the Missing WiMAX Application?

Implications: 1.      In the long term, the MSOs will need to find a way to offer their video services on wireless. 2.      The biggest sure thing that the cable TV companies got out of the Clearwire deal was 3G wholesale.   3.      Moving WiMAX from 2.5 GHz to a lower frequency band, as some analysts are suggesting, would eliminate many concerns.

Analysis:  Ultimately, there will be demand for video content from the large CATV companies to be available via wireless.  The investment in Clearwire by Comcast, Time Warner, and Bright House could be a step in this direction.  

Sprint has touted WiMAX as expensive to get the initial footprint, but cheaper in the long run because the capacity would be so much greater compared to the CDMA spectrum – and it would allow for giant applications.  The problem has been in foreseeing what exactly would use so much bandwidth.  Given the MSOs have major deployment of cable plant, perhaps they could have wireless distribution of video content from the edge of the neighborhood.  In designing such a network, they would not even have to go great distances, and thus, it would not be too expensive.   

But as long as Clearwire stays at 2.5 GHz, there are still going to be questions about the final costs of putting the WiMAX network itself together.  If the new alliance was able in the future to get nationwide spectrum at a much lower frequency, it would remove some of the major worries including in getting in-building coverage as well as getting greater distances between towers.  

For right now, the biggest advantage with the new Clearwire for the cable TV companies is finally getting a good agreement on 3G wholesale.  Before, there were so many restrictions on them and now they are finally free to do what they want.  

But do the cable folks fully know what they bought into – or did they just believe what Sprint told them?  For example, did they get into a detailed level of discussion about what the access costs are going to be?   Cable companies do not have infrastructure everywhere to potentially provide backhaul.