Comcast and Time Warner are in talks with Sprint and Clearwire to join the joint venture named Xohm. Comcast is offering 1 billion (with a B) and Time Warner has offered 500 million to help the fledging company make it off the ground.
I personally don’t know how to feel about this. I haven’t given any type of commercial wireless internet option much thought because I haven’t seen how it will be a viable option for home and away from home internet connectivity. You can’t get me to believe reading the web on a 1.5 inch phone screen is considered viable. Verizon’s EV-DO service just made it to my area, and has speed and download limits attached to it. It is similar with the other companies in the area, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Since I am considered a rural area I will never see Fios in my lifetime (I don’t even have access to DSL at the moment), so I am highly skeptical of any reported efforts such as this. Even by Xohm’s own website they are talking a limited roll out all the way through 2010. I had hopes that the 700mhz auction might have given me a new opportunity to see wireless internet access that would be viable for my needs, but with Verizon winning most of it, I see the status quo for many many years to come.
Regardless, here is the article from the WP if you are interested. You might need to create an account to access it.
