It’s official – Google announced they are applying on Monday to participate in FCC auction 73 for coveted 700 Mhz spectrum. We’ve talked before about a world in which Google is a competitor in the telecom service provider realm. It’s enough to send shivers up the back of some existing service provider execs. Of course, just applying for participation in the auction doesn’t necessarily translate into providing service in the future. Google very well may change their mind, lose during the auction process, or get the spectrum and do little with it. It’s simply too early to predict what the long term prospects are for Google’s wireless aspirations. But it’s always fun to speculate.

I for one think Google has no intention of becoming a service provider themselves. Rather, I see them packaging up a solution set, which includes spectrum, the Android operating system, and of course a mobile search/advertising engine, and making it available to current and potential service providers. In effect, a wholesale Google powered wireless product, offered to whoever has the wherewithal to provide wireless service. I recognize there are some regulatory hurdles to such a scenario, unless Google pursues the D block spectrum, which has more favorable wholesale rules. Whatever strategy Google pursues, should they come to market with a viable wireless offering (wholesale or not), it certainly will have numerous competitive implications, many of which are impossible to see today.

There are reports surfacing that the consortium of large MSOs that make up Pivot Wireless have begun strategizing their next move. That move probably does not involve Sprint, which recently announced they were halting Pivot deployments. This has to be considered a real blow to the likes of Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, and Advance/Newhouse, the Pivot consortium members. The AP is reporting that the consortium has assembled a group of wireless business strategists to map out their wireless future, and they may decide to go it alone.

This has to be considered a serious competitive fumble for cable. The Pivot consortium realized long ago that a wireless component is necessary to effectively battle their telco competitors. Pivot, if not the answer, was at least seen as stemming the tide until such time that a longer term solution was unveiled. Sprint was seen as a good partner – Sprint already provides the lion’s share of VoIP expertise for cable landline telephony. No one could have predicted the troubles Sprint now faces and their obvious distractions are impacting both the Pivot and Xohm projects. Every day that the cable industry misses in getting their wireless act together is a day that the telecom industry grows their wireless lead. Cable is not without options. They are sitting on a boat load of spectrum themselves, acquired in the last AWS spectrum auction. The upcoming 700 Mhz auction also offers a window of opportunity. Or they may decide to just go ahead and buy Sprint. Neither of those options can be done quickly and therefore continues to put the cable industry at a disadvantage. Look for the telecom industry to continue to seize on their wireless advantage.

Recent news does not bode well for the wireless joint venture between Sprint and several cable MSOs, branded as Pivot Wireless. Sprint announced during their quarterly analyst call that they are freezing the rollout of Pivot to any further markets due to “provisioning complexities.” In other words, they can’t get it to work, at least not without too much trouble. Both Sprint and its cable partners have publicly said they are disappointed with Pivot’s performance so far. Is this recent news a precursor to scrapping the joint venture?

Interim Sprint CEO Paul Saleh announced on their earnings call, “As our focus is on simplifying the business and particularly focusing on the customer experience, we have made a decision not to expand that service in other markets or other stores.” Pivot is currently offered in 33 markets, with Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, and Advance/Newhouse as its cable MSO partners. The news may be more troubling for the cable MSO partners than for Sprint (although Sprint has no shortage of troubles right now). Wireless is increasingly becoming an important addition to the triple play bundle. As telecom carriers continue their ramp up of triple play solutions, they are exploring ways to leverage their wireless lead. Both Verizon and AT&T are marketing bundles that tie wireless, wireline, and video together. Many analysts suspect that mobile wireless will be the wild card in the competitive battle between cable and telecom. The Pivot Wireless concept bridged the wireless gap for Cablecos, at least temporarily. It’s long been rumored that Pivot was not perceived by Cablecos as their long term wireless solution, but it did get them in the business much more quickly than if they built something from scratch. It appears that strategy may now be in jeopardy.

Cox announced the launch of their Pivot Wireless service in northern Virginia, a key suburb of the Washington D.C. market. Northern Virginia joins markets in Arizona, New England, Oklahoma, and San Diego where Cox has launched their Pivot Wireless service. Pivot is joint venture with Sprint, where the Sprint wireless network is the underlying carrier. Pivot attempts to link cable service with wireless by offering services like mobileTV and the ability to search TV listings from a mobile handset.

See the northern Virginia launch details in this Washington Times article.

IPTV and cable providers have long known that local content can be an effective differentiation strategy. That view is now extending to mobile wireless service, with Pivot Wireless experimenting with local video content for mobile phones. Not to be confused with the original production of local content, Pivot’s local content strategy simply repurposes existing local news, weather, and sports broadcasts for the mobile phone. TelecomWeb reports that Comcast, Time Warner, and Cox have all successfully launched local content for their Pivot Wireless ventures, and are looking to expand the practice. "Video content can be truly customized and localized for each MSO and market," says Kevin Packingham, Sprint's vice president for marketing and product development on the joint Pivot venture.

Pivot is positioning video, using both local and national content, as a differentiator for their wireless service. It makes sense for them to try to leverage their cable heritage of robust video service. Unfortunately for Pivot, their wireless competitors have already seen the mobileTV light and are aggressively pursuing wireless video strategies of their own. Verizon Wireless is very active with their V-Cast mobileTV service, and AT&T and T-Mobile are pursuing options as well (although less aggressively). Sprint is also very active with mobileTV, but you wonder how Pivot and Sprint view themselves in the market. They are business partners on the one hand, but clearly competitors as well. Should make for some interesting board meetings.

According to a Multichannel News report, the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) is in discussions with Sprint to resell wireless service. NCTC executive vice president Scott Abbott noted that the discussions are very early on and no deal is imminent. It is unclear whether such a potential arrangement would be an extension of the Pivot Wireless initiative, or just a straight resale arrangement for Sprint services. Like their larger cable TV brethren, small independent cable companies want in on wireless. They recognize that the current battles with telecom are only going to become more intense, and offering wireless may prove to be a necessary component to effectively compete.

It should come as no surprise that the NCTC is talking with Sprint about wireless resale. Sprint has long partnered with NCTC member companies, acting as a wholesale VoIP/telephony provider for voice services option. Extending that relationship to wireless is only natural. An interesting question is about branding. If the Pivot wireless brand begins to gain traction nationally and sees some success, than extending that brand to independent cable companies could be of great value to them. Wireless is one of those services where a local brand may not provide as much value as a more nationally recognized brand. It’s very difficult to compete against a Verizon Wireless or T-Mobile brand on a local level, when those companies spend billions of dollars (collectively) on marketing and brand recognition. Wireless may be one of the few services where it makes sense to align one’s self with a national brand. That being said, there are a number of pitfalls in doing that. Finding the right relationship is difficult. In a near perfect world, a small local operator wants to control their own network and customer relationships, while also leveraging that national brand recognition. Such a relationship is hard to come by, and NCTC will be challenged to negotiate a deal that make preferred terms a reality.

Sprint and Google announced a partnership to develop WiMAX based applications for the upcoming Sprint WiMAX network. The goal is to marry applications from the Google Apps suite with devices that will utilize the Sprint WiMAX network. According to their joint press release, the partnership will allow customers “… to experience a new form of interactive communications, high speed Internet browsing, local and location-centric services, and multimedia services including music, video, TV and on-demand products.” Sprint hopes this is but one step in a series of high profile steps to build their WiMAX partner ecosystem.

This is revealing insight into the potential future of broadband and wireless. Telephony Online reported yesterday about a new study, The WiMAX Explosion!, from the Boschulte Schnee Group LLC, which purports that WiMAX could have serious implications on telecom and cable carriers. Its ability to offer a robust broadband service, in conjunction with portability provides a compelling competitive advantage. While WiMAX may not provide a true triple play competitive offering, it may not have to. If its promise of mobile/fixed broadband convergence holds true, it may be compelling enough to dissuade consumers from entertaining the triple play proposition in the first place. If WiMAX is able to supplant the broadband and voice component from the triple play bundle, who needs it. Google and Sprint’s announcement only adds ammunition to the argument that WiMAX could be a formidable force. The combination of broadband portability with interactive applications like the ones Google can provide will only increase WiMAX’s value proposition.

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In an effort to lock up residential and small business voice bundles, AT&T revised its AT&T Unity calling plan to include 'rollover' minutes and unlimited free calling within their landline and wireless customer base. Customers are now able to call up to ‘100 million’ phone numbers, both wireline and wireless, and not have those calls count against their wireless minutes of use. The changes now also include the rollover of unused minutes from month to month over a 12 month period.

AT&T continues to leverage its scale with its growing bundling strategies. To qualify for this plan, prospective customers must subscribe to both wireline and wireless service from AT&T and choose to have them on a single bill. Yet another example of how larger telecom carriers are leveraging their wireline and wireless network assets to offer bundling strategies that their cable MSO competitors are challenged to meet. Pivot wireless is the cable industry’s answer to the wireless issue, but its been slow to get off the ground. AT&T is trying to seize the advantage, while they still have it.

Perhaps no consumer electronics device launch has been more anticipated as this week’s iPhone launch. Engadget reveals that AT&T is even offering instructions to store managers and landlords on how to properly manage iPhone buying frenzies. 3screens.net compares it to the arrival of the Beatles. Apple and AT&T are either thrilled at the prospects or petrified that the reality won’t live up to the hype. Competitors to AT&T are also fairly anxious this week. They can only hope that the market research firm M:Metrics has it wrong when they predict that 67 percent of those who were most inclined to purchase an iPhone are subscribers on other carrier networks. Will that translate in to a mass exodus from the likes of Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile? Probably not, but they are certain to feel some pain.

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