Comcast Won't Be a Cellular Competitor

ALCHIN: COMCAST WON'T BE A CELLULAR COMPETITOR
[SOURCE: Multichannel News]
Comcast co-chief financial officer John Alchin couldn't say much about the nation’s largest cable operator’s participation in the Federal Communications Commission wireless auctions, but he added that there is no intention to become a cellular carrier in competition with Sprint Nextel, Cingular Wireless, T-Mobile USA or AT&T Wireless. Comcast is a partner in SpectrumCo, a group that includes Time Warner, Cox Communications and Advance/Newhouse Communications. Through 118 rounds of the auction -- which commenced Aug. 9 -- SpectrumCo has bid $2.4 billion and has 113 provisionally wining bids for markets such as Los Angeles; Chicago; Washington, D.C.; and Dallas. “Any spectrum that we acquire really provides us with long-term flexibility and many strategic options that wouldn't be otherwise available to us,” Alchin said at the conference. “We have no interest in being the fifth cellular operator.” Alchin added that Comcast will likely test integrating wireless functionality enabled through the increased spectrum in certain markets into the other platforms the cable operator has, perhaps in conjunction with its Sprint Nextel joint venture (which also includes the other partners in SpectrumCo).
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