It made sense, therefore it had to happen. Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC-WI) and LightSquared are apparently chatting up a wireless relationship around LTE, although a Time Warner Cable spokesperson declined to comment one way or the other.
TWC and its cable partners, Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Bright House Networks invested in Clearwire (Nasdaq: CLWR) along with big brother partner Sprint (NYSE: S) (also reportedly in talks with LightSquared) to get a feel for the broadband wireless business. As of late last year, that feel had led Comcast to announce flatly that it was finished investing in Clearwire and for Time Warner Cable executives to state on several occasions they were still studying wireless but so far weren't happy with what they'd found.
In the midst of this, LightSquared burst onto the scene as "a nationwide wholesale provider of wireless services to cable providers and other telecom companies." Of course, all of this could just be talk because LightSquared is still a long way--farther away than Clearwire--from having a viable network, and it's still struggling with interference issues with GPS devices.
"Signing a roaming deal with LightSquared is kind of like planning a trip that goes over the bridge to nowhere," Walter Piecyk, an analyst with BTIG told the New York Post.
For more:
- DSL Reports has this story
- the New York Post has story
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