TMCnet News

Sprint Nextel, Cable Partners Name John Garcia President of Joint Venture
[January 04, 2006]

Sprint Nextel, Cable Partners Name John Garcia President of Joint Venture


By ROBERT LIU
TMCnet Wireless and Technology Columnist

 

Sprint Nextel and its cable partners have agreed upon John A. Garcia, senior vice president of Strategic Partners for Sprint Consumer Solutions, as the newly appointed president of the companies' nationwide joint venture announced in November 2005, the companies said Wednesday.



 

Garcia, who was interviewed in the latest issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine, will assume the new position immediately and focus his efforts on rolling out so-called “Quadruple Play” (voice, video, data and wireless) communications services to the estimated 41 million customers served by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Advance/Newhouse Communications. The venture has the potential to serve approximately 75 million homes overall.


 

“This is an incredible opportunity and our goal is to provide millions of customers access to the most advanced integrated entertainment, communications and wireless products available anywhere in the United States. As early as mid-2006, we intend to begin the first steps of our rollout and deliver on that promise,” Garcia said in his prepared remarks.

 

When the partners first agreed last November to the terms of the joint venture, the JV was capitalized with $200 million, half of which came from Sprint Nextel and the remaining split collectively among the cable partners. The initial capitalization was intended to fund national marketing and back office integration. But at that time, Garcia told TMCnet the significance of the JV goes beyond simply bundling cellular service into a cable bill and it was always the intention for the JV to also use the capital to fund development converged services.

 

Garcia will report to a six-member governance council: three from Sprint and one each from Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox. The remainder of employees for the joint venture will be named in the next few months and will include positions in marketing, product, operations, program management, finance, strategy and other areas.

 

Under Garcia's leadership, the companies in the joint venture plan to:

  • Offer consumers access to the expanded four element bundle, or "Quadruple Play," or any combination of services including video, wireless voice and data services, high speed Internet and cable phone service
  • Serve growing consumer demand for a wireless "third screen" beyond the TV and computer screens
  • Develop and introduce new co-branded wireless devices that will provide new and unique features that integrate cable and wireless services
  • Sell and market these co-branded products and services to customers through a combination of 1,600 Sprint retail stores, cable retail outlets and other third-party distributors, including thousands of RadioShack stores
       

     

    Garcia was one of the earliest employees hired into Sprint's Wireless group in 1995. In his first role as vice president of Marketing, he managed many of the initial marketing and sales strategies used to launch Sprint PCS into the marketplace. He has also served as senior vice president of sales & distribution.

     

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    Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.


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