Malone Backing Several Horses In Broadband Race

As 2006 comes to an end, it cannot be said that John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media Corp., is sitting on the sidelines of the satellite and wireless broadband market. Liberty Media, a holding company that owns interests in a broad range of electronic retailing, media, communications and entertainment businesses, is generating a swirl of publicity about a possible deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. that would give Liberty Media control of DirecTV.

There is speculation that Liberty Media would engage in a two-step transaction involving DirecTV, which would ultimately lead to a second deal with a telephone company eager to jump into the high-definition TV market without having to spend billions of dollars on placing new fiber connections throughout the United States.

On another front, while Liberty Media elected to sell its stake in California-based OpenTV Corp. in October to Kudelski Group, Liberty Media maintains stakes in News Corp., Time Warner Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and Motorola Inc. At the same time, Liberty Media maintains control of a peer-to-peer gaming company Fun Technologies Inc., Starz Entertainment Group LLC, On Command Corp. and Trueposition Inc., which develops and markets locating technology.

Liberty Media also maintains a 32 percent stake in fast-growing Wildblue Communications Inc., but this is not Liberty Media’s only consumer-friendly wireless broadband play.

With its 4 percent stake in Sprint Nextel, Liberty Media not only plays in the cellular broadband space, but also is positioning itself to profit in the rural broadband market no matter which delivery method becomes the dominant player in the arena.

During the U.S. Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) recently concluded Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) auction, Wireless DBS, a joint venture involving DirecTV and Echostar Communications Corp., was an aggressive player in the early bidding. However, this DBS combo abruptly withdrew from the bidding after its strong start, giving way to larger telecommunications companies with far deeper pockets. Among those was Spectrumco LLC, which combined Sprint Nextel with Comcast Corp., Time Warner Inc. and two other cable companies, so Liberty Media had its frequency bases covered in the auction via its interest in Sprint Nextel. The Spectrumco consortium captured 137 AWS licenses with a bid valued at more than $2 billion.

This was “the largest amount of spectrum suitable for wireless broadband ever offered in a single FCC auction,” says FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, but how soon these AWS licenses will be converted into revenue generating wireless broadband services remains to be seen.

In the meantime, aside from Wildblue, cable modems and AWS licenses, Liberty Media also has it hands on another broadband card via little-known Current Communications Group LLC. The Maryland-based company is working with Texas-based TXU Electric Delivery, a unit of TXU Corp., to offer broadband services via powerlines to more than 2 million customers in Texas, a service the companies hope to launch in early 2007.

Through this deal, Liberty Media has a stake on what is being billed as the biggest — and by far the most ambitious — deployment of broadband by powerline technology in the United States, and other investors in Current Communications include big names like Google Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Martin said earlier this summer that, “it is my hope that our rules will allow [broadband by powerline] to flourish,” and the FCC in November classified the technology as an “information service.” The declaration places the service on an equal regulatory footing with cable modem and DSL, making it easier to deploy. “This approach is consistent with the framework that the Commission has established for cable modem service and wireline broadband Internet access service, furthering the Commission’s goal of regulating like services in a similar manner,” the FCC said.

This new broadband delivery method is on a collision course with satellite broadband, so satellite providers would be best advised not to ignore the effort. Both are ideal solutions for providing broadband service to unserved or underserved areas of the globe.

And the masterful Malone is backing both.