Editing WiMAX (section)

=== Triple-play ===
WiMAX directly supports the technologies that make [[triple play (telecommunications)|triple-play]] service offerings possible (such as [[quality of service]] and [[multicast]]). These are inherent to the WiMAX standard rather than being added on as [[carrier Ethernet]] is to [[Ethernet]].

On May 7, 2008, in the United States, [[Sprint Nextel]], [[Google]], [[Intel]], [[Comcast]], [[Bright House Networks|Bright House]], and [[Time Warner]] announced a pooling of an average of 120&nbsp;MHz of spectrum and merged with [[Clearwire]] to market the service. The new company hoped to benefit from combined services offerings and network resources as a springboard past its competitors. The cable companies were expected to provide media services to other partners while gaining access to the wireless network as a [[Mobile virtual network operator]] to provide triple-play services.

Some wireless industry analysts, such as Ken Dulaney and Todd Kort at Gartner, were skeptical how the deal would work out: Although fixed-mobile convergence had been a recognized factor in the industry, prior attempts to form partnerships among wireless and cable companies had generally failed to lead to significant benefits for the participants. Other analysts at IDC favored the deal, pointing out that as wireless progresses to higher bandwidth, it inevitably competes more directly with cable, DSL and fiber, inspiring competitors into collaboration. Also, as wireless broadband networks grow denser and usage habits shift, the need for increased backhaul and media services accelerate, therefore the opportunity to leverage high bandwidth assets was expected to increase.