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Filed under: Wireless

The FCC doesn’t exactly have a track record of swiftness when it comes to reviewing mergers, but it looks like that little election thing might have lit a couple grey suits on fire — FCC chairman Kevin Martin says that the agency is aiming to finish looking over the Sprint / Clearwire and Verizon / Alltel deals by the end of the year. That’s right before a new administration takes over and potentially gums up the process, so we’re guessing it’ll be approvals all around, since rejecting the bids would result in some fun lawsuits for everyone, but we’ll see how things shake out.

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

It seems that Sprint and Clearwire have been hooking up and breaking it off for nearly as long as Qualcomm and Nokia have been brawling, but just weeks after hearing that the two were on speaking terms once again, we’re now learning that a deal may be closer than ever. Reportedly, both firms are “close to announcing the formation of a WiMAX joint venture funded in part by a $2 billion injection from Intel,” and if the agreement is indeed landed within the next few days, it would “create a new company that combines Sprint’s licenses in the 2.5GHz wireless spectrum and Clearwire’s spectrum in the same and adjoining air waves.” On paper, the deal seems to make sense for all parties involved, but at this point, we aren’t about to assume that’s enough to actually see this thing through.

 

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Source: Darren Murph

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Filed under: Wireless

Hey, breaking up is hard to do — which is why we totally understand these reports that Sprint and Clearwire have been back in touch after two companies split back in November. Apparently all that interest in Clearwire from ICO, Amp’d, and DirecTV was enough to get Sprint back to the table, and Reuters is reporting that the new venture could see additional funding from Google and Best Buy to keep costs down. Still, we hate to see hearts break, and if this one doesn’t work out, well, maybe it’s time to set some boundaries, get some distance and seek out some new national telecom companies to partner with — you two deserve better than this.

 

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Source: Nilay Patel

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

Just as the company’s CEO hinted at this past spring, DirecTV will indeed begin offering service bundles that include broadband over powerline, with the Maryland-based Current Group opening up access to its Dallas / Fort Worth BPL network starting at the end of the year. This tie-up is the latest move by the satellite company — following June’s deal with Clearwire — to strengthen its ability to offer high-speed internet, putting it in a better position to compete with the attractive triple- and even quad-play bundles being touted by cable providers and telcos. It also follows DirecTV’s failure to secure any of its own spectrum in last years FCC auction, as you’ll recall. Current has stated that as its network grows out beyond Texas, the agreement between the two firms allows DirecTV to market to those customers as well.

[Via MarketWatch]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Source: Evan Blass

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Amp’d’s virtual network may be dead and gone (not really, it got acquired; you know what we mean), but the MVNO had arguably one of the better exclusive content packages out there. Ironically, we’ve heard that Amp’d ultimately spent only a very small fraction of its once-$400 million fortune on the content itself, but hey, maybe they spent that money somewhat wisely. Anyhoo, it seems Peter Adderton and his jolly gang have been shopping themselves around as a one-stop-shop package deal of content, and fixed wireless provider Clearwire may be getting ready to bite. Details are slim at this point, but the synergy is pretty obvious: the former Amp’d crew can concentrate on what it does best — produce entertaining content — and let Clearwire worry about the infrastructure. Lil’ Bush wouldn’t look half bad over WiMAX, yeah?

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Source: Chris Ziegler

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