Sprint, Cable co's JV unveils plans

Sprint and its four cable company partners have chosen seven regional markets to pilot its quadruple play of bundled landline phone, Internet, television and wireless services. Starting sometime in the second half of this year, the joint venture will launch in Time Warner's Austin, TX, and Raleigh, NC, cable markets as well as Comcast's Portland, OR, and a New England city that Comcast declined to name for "competitive reasons," according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Cox and Advance/Newhouse, Sprint's other two partners, did not identify their target markets. Initial features of the bundled services include viewing the day's television schedule through the user's mobile phone and using that guide to watch video clips on the phone from Sprint and the cable provider.

While the initial offerings of the JV and other quadruple play service providers will not sound very compelling to the average user, the carrier hopes the deals will lead to a wide variety of mobile content, especially video, available to its subscribers from the cable partners. The quadruple play is foremost a move to reduce churn and simplify the billing process. Subscribers would get one bill for all the services, which many say will help the retention of subscribers.

For more on Sprint's deal with the cable companies:
- take a look at this article from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)