Yesterday in one of my blog entries, I opined about Cablevisions decision to provide some data services. The entry was titled Triple Play Becomes Quadruple and Quintuple Play. I mentioned that wireless was the missing piece of the puzzle and also that Sprint would be the likely network they should approach to resell the service.
Little did I know that TMCnets Johanne Torres was writing about a similar topic in an article titled Time Warner Cable to Resell Sprint Cellular Service. Sprint seems uniquely positioned in the wireless resale market as other carriers dont resell service at the moment.
It will be interesting to see how WiMAX service providers will change the face of competition in the wireless voice resale business. No single WiMAX provider will have the coverage area (at least at first) that Sprint has so they will have to resort to reselling their service at a substantially discounted price to compete with Sprint.
WiMAX phone service would be based on VoIP however so consumers using this service may or may not have to pay the myriad fees and taxes that go along with todays wireless service. If WiMAX telephony providers dont need have the same restrictions as traditional cellular providers they will be at a competitive advantage in some ways.
This issue once again boils down to what the government is going to do about taxing and regulating VoIP. Please see VoIP, Vonage, The FCC and Regulation The Voice over IP market is booming today, I wonder how much more growth the market could support if we didnt have to worry about the regulatory landscape changing on a regular basis.
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