Cable companies call on Sprint Nextel | CNET News.com

Sprint has finally inked its deal to offer dual band phones in cooperation with cable companies. This has been anticipated for months although it was a little surprising that 4 cable companies joined the same venture.

My family still owns Sprint but I am not as enthusiastic about the company as I used to be. The idea that Skype, Google Talk and others might offer competing services at no charge makes one pause. It is possible that Sprint could fall into the same trap as the land line phone companies. That is it may be difficult for Sprint and partners to reduce fee revenue in exchange for larger future advertising revenue.

We all know that vendors will pay dearly to get calls from consumers. The yellow pages prove that vendors will pay through the nose for leads. Google, in particular, plans a business model based on "advertiser pays".

Sprint does promise innovation. For example, the firm mentions the possibilities of features such as programing a DVR remotely through ones telephone. It is also exciting to be approaching the time when folks routinely are available at one phone number. There will not be the need to have seperate home, work and cell numbers.