Was the alternative for Comcast to build its own wireless network; was that on the table? Nagel: “I think we looked at this deal as something that was timely. We always were open to any of the alternatives. We’ve looked at a lot of different things…We’ve done that for a number of years but this one looked like the right point in time, the right partners and the right approach that would allow us to get into the space in a way that we could provide the products and services that we think over time our customers are going to want.”

Is your interest in providing the mobile Internet or is there also a mobile TV play of some sort? Nagel: “You know, the nice thing about the Internet is that you can do anything on top of it. So when you say mobile Internet, I think what’s very attractive to it is that you could provide an IP connection—a relatively fast IP connection—both inside the home or in a nomadic way on the go. Given where things are going, an IP connection can deliver any type of application or bit, and we don’t know what the end game’s going to be and this is a very long-term relationship. The thing that [Clearwire is] building can morph with us and our customers and our business plan.”

Can you comment on what it was like to be part of such a huge negotiation with seven players? Nagel: “I know from the outside it looks like a very potentially difficult thing to do—to get seven different companies into a deal. But I think the thing is that probably isn’t as easily seen from the outside is that from the inside there was real alignment amongst the partners about what we wanted to get done…The idea of an open network and to allow each individual party to have free reign relative to its products and services and customer operations…Seven people is a lot, I agree with you, but it actually was a lot easier than you would have thought. It was a lot of fun…There were fabulous people involved. It seemed like every company brought some very bright people to it so I enjoyed it thoroughly.”

That’s a good perspective, and maybe if you could touch on how this is different from Pivot, which was Comcast’s former partnership with Sprint? Nagel: “It’s actually significantly different. The Pivot relationship was really one where we were an agent for Sprint’s service and what it required us to integrate products and services and actual operations. What we learned is that it was a lot more complex—trying to get two different companies and different operational mechanics and different approaches to marketing, sales and all those types of things. We thought that the continued upkeep of that was probably going to be far too difficult and that kind of led us to where we are today. In this relationship I really have full control over my offer and my marketing and my product and my brand and how I provision and all the things that you would think about if I was going to want to integrate services and integrate products and customer experiences across my wireline and across my wireless products.”

Talk a little bit about how you will be providing the same services in the same market as Clearwire, and Sprint, will it be competitive? Nagel: “I think that each of us has the opportunity to sell products. We all have certain attributes that we think will highlight. For us, we were going to bundle it with our cable products and integrate those cable products. I don’t know what people’s plans are…but most likely we are going after customers that are different and have different wants and needs.”

MVNOSs have had a difficult start, but from what you are saying it sounds this could have a lot of potential? Nagel: “The relationship we have with these two companies, at least for Comcast, where we have a whole sale relationship on the 3G and the 4G and the ability to bring those together in a customer experience with economics that are far better than what we’ve seen in the past. I think it does give us the ability to provide products and services and actually make money at it—that attracts all of us. All of us are fairly excited about what we’re able to do when the network gets built and we can robustly go after this.”

Do you expect to have a 3G partnership before the 4G network’s built? Nagel: “That’s a good question. We just finished the deal.
I was up until 3:15 this morning. Honestly we really haven’t put a lot of attention or thought into what our next steps are. Now that the deal’s done, we’ll start putting together not just a product plan but a timing of when we want to do what by when and how do we will integrate it. So I think at this point it’s a little too early to say.”