Time Warner, Comcast Invest in WiMax Venture

KIRKLAND/OVERLAND PARK,
May 7: Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Google are among the investors in a new
company, formed by Sprint and Clearwire Corporation, focused on the deployment
of a nationwide wireless broadband network.

Clearwire Corporation and
Sprint Nextel Corporation have inked a deal to combine their next-generation
wireless broadband businesses to form a new company, named Clearwire. The
company aims to deploy the first nationwide mobile WiMAX network. Intel
Corporation, Google, Comcast Corporation, Time Warner Cable and Bright House
Networks have collectively agreed to invest $3.2 billion into Clearwire for a
22-percent stake. (Comcast will invest $1.05 billion, Intel Capital $1 billion
in addition to its previous investments made in Clearwire, Time Warner Cable $550
million, Google $500 million, and Bright House Networks $100 million.) Sprint
will be the majority owner with 51 percent, and the existing Clearwire
shareholders will own approximately 27 percent.

Clearwire expects to offer
mobile wireless Internet services on a broad array of new devices. With
embedded WiMAX chipsets in laptops, phones, PDAs, mobile Internet devices and
consumer electronic equipment, mobile WiMAX technology is expected to allow
users to wirelessly access a range of multimedia applications, such as video,
games, large data files, videoconferencing and more, anywhere in the network
coverage area. The company is targeting a network deployment that will cover
between 120 million and 140 million people in the U.S. by the end of 2010.

“This is a great coalition
of innovative companies that have joined together to create the next generation
of mobile wireless products,” said Brian L. Roberts, the chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation. “It is exciting to be
on the ground floor of this new venture that we believe will create
unprecedented high-speed wireless products and make them available across the
nation.”

“This exciting new venture
enables Time Warner Cable to help shape the next generation of wireless
services in ways that will complement and enhance our products and
services," added Glenn Britt, Time Warner Cable's president and CEO.
“We're committed to giving our customers more control over how and where they
can easily connect to what's important to them—entertainment,
information, and each other. The agreements we're announcing today are a
financially prudent way for us to add mobility to our offerings when our
customers demand it."

As part of the deal,
Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks will become 4G
providers of the WiMAX service. And Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House
Networks and Clearwire will become bundled providers of Sprint's wireless voice
and data services.

The transaction is
expected to be completed during the fourth quarter of 2008.

—By Mansha Daswani