Hosted Communications

According to a CNN report released today, Comcast (News - Alert), the nationwide cable service provider, has raised $2 billion through a bond sale as the company researches its wireless broadband options, among other things.

 

Comcast is the largest cable television company and the second largest Internet service provider in the United States.

 

According to Bloomberg (News - Alert) News, the Philadelphia cable company was able to increase its planned debt offering of $1.5 billion to $2 billion. According to a regulatory filing, Comcast’s total debt was $37.4 billion as of March 31.

 

This announcement comes a day after the company posted solid first quarter earnings and said it was still planning to move ahead in wireless data.

 

On the earnings conference call with analysts, Comcast executives said they would take action to preserve its credit rating.

 

Comcast executives stated on Thursday, “We are going to be very disciplined in our capital structures, and do things that make a lot of sense.”

 

The financing move is a good sign that Comcast is getting closer to reaching some sort of agreement on a suggested WiMax joint venture between Sprint (News - Alert) and Clearwire, according to some analysts. Other companies that have been involved in those discussions include Time Warner Cable, Intel, and Google.

 

Comcast has a big position in the future of a national WiMax network. If the joint venture is not able to acquire enough funding or participants, the so-called 4G wireless technology could fall behind the long term evolution or LTE technology that AT&T (News - Alert) and Verizon Wireless have already devoted themselves to.