dailywireless.org » AWS: Strike Out for Comcast?

AWS: Strike Out for Comcast?

Comcast is expected to launch WiMax femtocells during the second half of 2009, reports Unstrung. Comcast is investing more than 1 Billion in the Clearwire/Sprint/Google joint venture. Cable doesn’t have mobile voice. They want in.

Dave Williams, senior VP for wireless and technology at the cable giant, revealed earlier this year that Comcast is looking at deploying mini-WiMax basestations in the home. Femtocells provide better coverage in the home. Comcast, though, is keeping its plans to itself. “We’re not commenting,” a company spokesman told Unstrung when asked about potential femtocell deployments Wednesday afternoon.

picoChip has a 802.16e compliant WiMAX femtocell, the A-Pro3500w. Other reference designs are available from Freescale and Design Art. Kineto Wireless, a leading supplier voice over WiFi for mobile operators, raised an additional $15.5 million, including an investment from Motorola.

Comcast is believed to have a request-for-trial (RFT) issued to the femtocell vendor community. The in-home mini WiMAX hotspot would use a cable modem for backhaul.

Comcast is one of the companies funding the “new” Clearwire and part of the deal calls for 5 MHz of spectrum across the U.S. to be set aside solely for WiMax femtocells. (See Unstrung: Cable Plays Clearwire Card.)

Clearwire has a billion dollar investment in the Sprint/Clearwire/Google deal while Time Warner cable is in for $550M and Brighthouse networks in for another $100M. Their cable/WiMAX deal has plenty of spectrum — and can utilize Sprint’s cellular infrastructure.

But Comcast was also a big winner in the AWS auction, back in September, 2006. SpectrumCo, the Sprint/Cable group, paid $2.4 billion for 137 licenses in cities including New York, Boston, Washington, Detroit and Atlanta. Sprint later got completely out of the SpectrumCo group.

Top 10 Highest AWS Bidders
Bidders	Net total of high bids
1. T-Mobile	$4.2 billion
2. Verizon Wireless	$2.8 billion
3. SpectrumCo	$2.4 billion
4. MetroPCS	$1.4 billion
5. Cingular	$1.3 billion
6. Cricket	$710 million
7. Denali Spectrum	$365 million
8. Barat Wireless	$127 million
9. AWS Wireless	$116 million
10. Atlantic Wireless	$81 million
Click here to find out who is backing these bidders.

Now Comcast and Time Warner’s AWS investment seems redundant. They’ve got WiMAX. Why build out a separate AWS network? Mixing AWS, Mobile WiMAX and cellular would be dumb. And expensive.

T-Mobile USA expects to spend some $10.3 billion over three years ending 2009. T-Mobile spent $4.2 billion on the AWS band (1.7/2.1 GHz), in 2006 which doubled the amount of spectrum it had in the top 100 cities. Now it’s spending billions more to build out the network.

The AWS band could be used for Mobile WiMAX using (the yet to be ratified) FDD Mobile WiMAX standard. Intel says any interference is minor between the AWS-3 band, where “free” network M2Z would like to operate. That 20 MHz of spectrum is just above the current AWS cellular band.

But why bother? A traditional AWS cellular buildout could cost $5B-$10B, while a Mobile WIMAX system (using FDD) for cable operators would be an island of incompatibility.

Selling their AWS spectrum to AT&T or Verizon makes more sense.

SpectrumCo was deemed the winner of 137 AWS licenses for $2.37 billion. Comcast’s share was $1.29 billion, followed by Time Warner Cable’s $632.2 million, and Cox’s $248.3 million. (See SpectrumCo Gets Licenses) Comcast is the largest cable provider in the United States, with 24.2 million cable customers, 12.9 million high-speed Internet customers, and 4.1 million voice customers.

Comcast and Time Warner could make billions selling their AWS spectrum to the telcos, and consolidate their 5 MHz chunk of Femtocell spectrum with the 120 MHz now available on their joint venture with Clearwire/Sprint/Google.

T-Mobile began its nationwide AWS service this summer — soon to be available over the Android Phone — in the AWS band (1.7/2.1 GHz). Other current AWS band operators in the United States include Cleartalk, Leap Wireless and MetroPCS.

In related news, Embedded Wi-Fi chips could end up in almost a billion consumer electronics devices by 2012, according to market researcher In-Stat. In-Stat says the fastest-growing embedded Wi-Fi segment is mobile handsets, and dual-mode cell phones will surpass PCs as the largest category of Wi-Fi devices by 2011.

Cable’s AWS assets could generate billions. It’s a triple play. WiFi or femtocell can bring it home.

Related Dailywireless stories on the AWS auction include; T-Mobile Launches AWS in NYC, Canadian AWS Auction: Encouraging Competition, T-Mobile: $10B in 3 Years,