Qwest Communications’s chief executive said on Monday that he was working for a new kind of wireless partnership with Sprint Nextel, reports Reuters.
“We need a wireless partnership that is different than the one we have today,” Chief Executive Ed Mueller told an analyst meeting.
“I think we have much to do in wireless,” he said during the call. “We need a partner for voice, but we need a partner for data and broadband data, so as we look forward, we’ll need someone to help us with both of those.”
Mueller said the company will not be making any investments in wireless infrastructure of its own. As far as wireline services go, Mueller said he sees consumer broadband as a $1 billion business for Qwest. Qwest resells Sprint’s services, but analysts say this arrangement limits Qwest’s profit margins.
Some analysts wonder if Qwest might have bigger wireless ambitions, notes C/Net. There have been some rumors floating around that the company is talking to Sprint, Clearwire, and Intel about WiMax.
“About 20 percent of Qwest’s footprint is not dense enough for DSL,” said Donna Jaegers, director of research for equity research firm Janco Partners, “so WiMax would make a lot of sense.”
Nearly 21 percent of the U.S. population, or over 60 million Americans, live in rural areas that are either un-served or under-served by broadband services, according to Computerworld (as of August 2007).
.gif)
