Bright House Networks

Comcast launched a high-speed wireless data service in Portland on Tuesday as the first step in what the cable-TV network operator expects to eventually become a nationwide rollout -- with Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia expected to go online later this year.

Called Comcast High-Speed 2go, the new 4G service will operate over Clearwire's WiMAX infrastructure in the Portland metropolitan area and elsewhere over Sprint Nextel's nationwide 3G network. Comcast is a major investor in Clearwire, together with Bright House Networks, Google, Intel, Sprint and Time Warner Cable.

In what could be the first of some bad reports from technology giants, Intel on Wednesday announced preliminary fourth-quarter financial data. Revenue was about $8.2 billion, down 20 percent sequentially and 23 percent year over year. That's even lower than Intel predicted on Nov. 12.

Intel blamed weak demand and inventory reductions in the global PC supply chain. Intel's preliminary estimate of gross margin for the fourth quarter is at the bottom of the previous expectation of 55 percent, plus or minus a couple of points.

Cablevision Systems Corp. said Thursday it has finished the first phase of its wireless network buildout in New York and remains on track to complete the project in two years.

The diversified cable operator is offering the Wi-Fi service at no charge to its 2.4 million Internet customers at speeds of up to 1.5 Megabits per second, similar to DSL at home.

The company currently doesn't have plans to offer the service to non-subscribers.

Wall Street has been snapping up Sprint Nextel shares recently amid signs the struggling communications giant may be resolving problems that have plagued it since the second half of last year.

Perhaps the most encouraging sign comes in the form of record sales for the new "iPhone killer" Sprint co-developed with Samsung. Despite mixed reviews, the Instinct smartphone broke the company's record for the first week of sales for any high-speed EVDO mobile device.

The Federal Communications Commission has granted Sprint Nextel a one-year reprieve to relocate its iDEN mobile customers to new channel assignments on the same 800-MHz frequency band.

Six cable-TV operators that serve more than 82 percent of U.S. cable households have inked an agreement with Sony Electronics that will soon make it possible for cable subscribers to forego the use of stand-alone set-top boxes. The enabling Tru2way technology, based on Sun Microsystems' Java runtime environment, enables interactive capabilities in TV sets, gaming consoles, portable media players, and even mobile phones.

The set-top box, a necessary appendage for millions of cable televisions for decades, is moving toward extinction.

A leading television manufacturer, Sony Electronics Inc., and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said Tuesday they signed an agreement that will allow viewers to rid themselves of set-top boxes yet still receive advanced "two-way" cable services, such as pay-per-view movies.

In most cases, cable viewers also could dispose of another remote control since they could use their TV's control rather than one tied to the set-top box.

The joint WiMAX effort of Clearwire and Sprint Nextel that floundered last year has risen like a phoenix from the ashes, thanks to a $3.2 billion cash infusion from Comcast, Intel Capital, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks.

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire on Wednesday announced a $14.5 billion initiative to combine their wireless broadband businesses and form a new wireless communications company.

Named Clearwire, the new company will focus on expediting deployment of the first nationwide WiMAX network to provide widespread mobile broadband.