Is Clearwire Headed for Bankruptcy?

Clearwire Corp. is weighing whether to make a big debt payment that comes due in two weeks, a decision that could ultimately lead to a bankruptcy, a danger Clearwire has been warning in its quarterly reports for some time, as the company's full business plan remains substantially unfunded. 


The $237 million payment is due Dec. 1, 2011, and Clearwire, with $698 million in cash and short-term investments on Sept. 30, 2011 can afford to make it.

But the company needs to raise lots of money if it is to stay in business after the next 12 months. Clearwire May Skip Big Debt Payment

Sprint, which owns 53 percent of Clearwire, recently has suggested it could help Clearwire with an additional cash infusion. Will Sprint throw Clearwire a Lifeline? But it also has been argued that Sprint, or any other potential investor, would be better off waiting until Clearwire actually goes bankrupt, and then buy the asset then.


Clearwire has never completed its national WiMAX network, and now says it will build an LTE network as well. Some believe even AT&T or Verizon might invest, under some circumstances, or that Clearwire could attract another major anchor customer other than Sprint. Would AT&T invest? 

Consumer Brand Videos Do Best on Tablets

Online videos produced by consumer brands to promote their brand, products, or services appear to be least engaging when viewed on smart phones, most engaging when watched on tablets, according to Ooyala. 


But that might not indicate much other than that mobile users are more likely to have more distractions than users of tablets or PCs.Viewers watching on a game console are at home, not at work, and not commuting. Tablet users are much more likely to be relaxing, and sitting on a couch. 

Data from the “VideoMind Video Index Report” indicates that although the consumer brands vertical reflects some of the highest viewer engagement numbers of the industry segments studied, relative to other devices, viewer engagement is lowest on mobile devices.

Roughly 75 percent of tablet viewers watched one-quarter of a consumer brand video, with tablets also leading mobiles, desktops, and connected TV devices and game consoles among viewers who watched half or three-quarters of a video.

However, less than half of tablet viewers completed a consumer brand video, slightly less than the proportion of connected TV devices and game console viewers. Mobile trailed all devices in every completion rate studied. Brand Videos on Mobile


One might also argue that viewership is highest on the largest screens, ranging from TVs to PC and tablet screens. 

Canadian Regulators Try to Help, Might Harm

One of the enduring challenges of "regulating" in the public interest is that it is not always possible to foresee all outcomes. The Canadian

Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has been grappling with rules on wholesale pricing of broadband capacity sold to third parties who use that wholesale capacity to provide retail broadband service.


Metered pricing has been among the issues. Wholesalers, especially Bell Canada, wanted a metered system of rates, where wholesale customers pay based on the volume of data their customers actually use. ISPs oppose that scheme. 


If the goal was to stimulate competition by helping third parties create new retail plans for end users, that goal might be unattainable under the new rules, at least according to independent ISPs. 

“A key component of our costs [under the rate plan for business access] just went up 70 per cent,” said Michael Garbe, president of Accelerated Connections, a Toronto-based ISP that serves business customers. CRTC's broadband pricing rules will lead to price hikes


Whether that will be the case for consumers isn't entirely clear. 

AT&T: churn unaffected after rivals got the iPhone - MarketWatch

AT&T customers, apparently including many of those who use iPhones and might have complained at some point about inconsistent service, seem not to have defected to either Verizon or Sprint, AT&T says.


There is no question that iPhone exclusivity seemed to help AT&T reduce its churn rate. But many expected churn to increase once Verizon got rights to sell the iPhone. 

"Churn has not moved at all," said Glen Lurie, president of emerging devices for AT&T. Of course, aggregate or "net" churn might not entirely tell the story.


It is theoretically possible that more customers left, but even more customers signed up, producing no adverse effect on overall churn. AT&T churn unaffected after rivals got the iPhone

Technically, it appears AT&T churn has been inching upwards, but by an amount small enough that the overall trend is "flat."

Patent Lawsuits Might Decline Under New Rules

The explosion of umber of mobile handset patent lawsuits in U.S. courts went from 24 cases in 2006 to 84 in 2010, said David McDonald, an attorney at K&L Gates. It might be argued that the number of lawsuits has climbed because companies and people profit from such lawsuits. But the volume of such suits already is pinching the legal system in a purely logistical sense, and that is leading to changes that will undercut the profit motive for filing many cases.


That is not to say it is easy to design a mobile device without possibly using intellectual property of an astounding quantity. "Today, it's a lot more complex to resolve the IP gap between what you own and what you need," said Mario Obeidat, head of licensing for telecommunications at Intellectual Ventures, a company that primarily acquires patents and earns revenue by licensing them.

A mobile phone today requires 70,000 to 100,000 patents, he said. Spike in Mobile Lawsuits Spurs Changes

Among some of the changes, the U.S. International Trade Commission now can require litigants to   submit information regarding the impact of a case on the public interest. The new rule will also allow more public comment on the potential public impact of cases before the ITC. Such submissions could allow the ITC to decide against considering some cases if it finds that they are unlikely to have much impact on the public.


With potentially less incentive, fewer lawsuits are likely to be filed. 

"Untethered" Versus "Mobile" Apps, Devices, Access

Mobile or remote collaboration once was a matter of users communicating using enterprise-approved smart phones and PCs, with a couple of key applications. 

These days, non-standard devices including tablets, over-the-top and non-authorized applications now are quite common. A mobile worker's toolkit includes a combination of smartphones, tablets, laptops, netbooks, corporate devices and a bunch of applications.

True mobility is the ability to work from anywhere over any device and then be able to switch them when the user wants. This breaks the link between "wireless" and "mobility," Cisco tends to argue. In other words, there is a difference between "untethered" communications and collaboration, and "mobile" collaboration. 

Workers at a desk might start a video on a tablet and then move to the PC or move other content around between devices. Some of that activity might use or require a "mobile" device, connected to a mobile service provider's network. In other cases, Wi-Fi connections are sufficient. Most people, most of the time, prefer untethered or cordless devices, even when an access connection uses the fixed network. Collaboration in a Post-PC World


Much the same situation prevails in the consumer market as well. Most of the devices consumers now use, or will use increasingly in the future, can use Wi-Fi, which means the dominant connectivity requirement for a consumer is the fixed broadband connection, with wireless "tails" inside the house. 


In fact, given the growing use of mobile devices to consume content, most consumers will benefit from switching even their mobile phones to Wi-Fi connections when at home. 

That provides one obvious clue about the future value of the fixed network. Though mobile broadband and voice might be sufficient for many people, much of the time, the value-price relationship will, in all likelihood, "always" favor untethered use of the fixed network.

Untethered device ownership

Sony Considers Internet Rival to Cable TV

Sony Corp. is considering launching an Internet-based alternative to cable-TV service, the Wall Street Journal reports.


The Japanese electronics and entertainment company apparently has approached several big media companies that own TV channels to negotiate the rights to offer TV channels over the Web to U.S. consumers, the people say.


But what Sony wants to purchase is rights to a selected number of core channels that would allow Sony to sell the package at less cost than s typical cable TV, satellite or telco video subscription.


It isn't clear how much chance Sony will have to get the programming it wants. Content owners, particularly the networks, have been unwilling to license channels on terms less favorable than what now is the case for cable, telco and satellite providers. 


It seems unlikely that networks will want to jeopardize their substantial legacy revenue streams even to pick up one additional distributor such as Sony. 


Sony also wants to distribute only to Sony-made devices including PlayStation gaming consoles, television sets and Blu-ray players.


Sony has sold approximately 18.1 million PlayStation 3 consoles in the U.S., according to the latest data from tracker NPD Group Inc., and many homes have other Internet-connected Sony devices as well.

Sony Considers Internet Rival to Cable TV