U.S. cable giants pursue wireless path

PHILADELPHIA, March 26 (UPI) -- U.S. cable company giants Comcast and Time Warner Cable are discussing a joint venture based on wireless WiMax technology, sources said Wednesday.

The venture would be run by Sprint Nextel and Clearwire, which have already invested in the technology, The Washington Post reported.

Industry analyst Julie Ask at Jupiter Research said WiMax was the appropriate choice for the two cable companies. "To get into wireless makes sense for them," she said.

Tying Sprint and Clearwire into the cable companies' vision of a new delivery system, which could compete against Verizon Communications and AT&T, is "something for Wall Street analysts to judge," Ask told the newspaper.

Sprint lost 1 million wireless subscribers in 2007, the report said.