Cable-Sprint Wireless Effort Stumbles

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, prominently features a Pivot kiosk, complete with a touch-screen display and brochures.

Moving at Varying Speeds

Still, the company is struggling with its own woes, including falling sales and subscriber losses. Rather than concentrating efforts on leading the cable industry down the wireless path, Sprint appears to be focusing on blazing its own trail into the world of WiMax, a technology that enables high-speed Internet access over large swaths of land. On Aug. 16, Sprint said that through 2010 it intends to spend as much as $5 billion on the creation of a WiMax network that by that year will generate $2 billion to $2.5 billion in annual sales. "This is certainly a 180-degree change in their strategic posture [with cable]," says Mike Paxton, an analyst with consultancy In-Stat.

For their part, cable companies are moving at varying speeds to get Pivot in front of customers. "The reality is, I don't think any one of us would say this [rollout] is going slowly," says Roudi of Time Warner Cable, which has made Pivot available in 40% of its markets. "This is a fairly new product, and it's new to cable guys," he says, explaining why it's taking time to ramp up. "It's about long-term strategy. When wireless and wireline converge—[and when people start accessing TV channels and the Web wirelessly]—we want to be there." Yet Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, offers Pivot only in New England and in the Portland (Ore.) area. Advance/Newhouse is still further behind.

This is no time for cable providers to tap the brakes on wireless plans. Across the country, more consumers are watching video, surfing the Web, and making calls over wireless broadband connections. Unless cable companies hustle, they risk losing business to the telecom companies aggressively marching on cable turf.

Verizon and AT&T already offer TV in many markets. On Aug. 16, telco Embarq (EQ) announced it will test its own TV service. Meantime, a host of new wireless high-speed Internet service providers are hoping to eat into cable's Web-access business. Clearwire (CLWR), which sells wireless Web access and phone services, could soon go nationwide. Globally, nearly one in three mobile subscribers will use a mobile broadband connection by 2012, according to consultancy JupiterResearch.

Then there's the phalanx of mobile-TV companies taking aim at cable's TV business. Qualcomm's (QCOM) MediaFlo mobile-TV network is capable of eventually serving video wirelessly onto all sorts of consumer-electronics devices, including set-top boxes and TV sets. And mobile-TV usage is rising fast: Consultancy Telephia estimates that mobile-TV revenues totaled $146 million in the first quarter, approaching the $168 million generated by mobile video games. Cable companies have to be in all these businesses to thrive.

But without full support from Sprint, that task becomes all the more difficult.

Kharif is a writer for BusinessWeek.com in Portland, Ore.

Kharif is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com in Portland, Ore.