Warp Drive to offer MSNBC news
Through a deal to be announced next week, ISP Warp Drive will offer breaking news from MSNBC via its high-speed wireless connection.
In the deal, MSNBC will be the exclusive news resource for subscribers to Warp Drive. This will include video and online content from both MSNBC.com and MSNBC Business Video.
Warp Drive subscribers will receive unedited breaking business news from MSNBC Business Video, including news reports from NBC affiliates worldwide, corporate and industry presentations, Bloomberg news reports, and streaming audio and video.
Warp Drive has been offering wireless Internet service since the end of July, and offers bandwidth between 128 kbps (ISDN) and that of a T3 line. Working in conjunction with subscribers' ISPs, the service offers both Internet access and digital broadcasts to its subscribers.
Although "push" technology has generated a lot of hype, it is usually too bandwidth-greedy for most home- and small businesses. Bruce Lichorowic, vice president of sales and marketing for Warp Drive, describes the service as being an "enabling technology" for push networks looking for sufficient bandwidth to do justice to their graphic-heavy content.
This is the first content partnership the one-year-old company has struck, and Lichorowic sees it as a very strong vote of confidence.
"This gives tremendous credibility to what we're trying to do," Lichorowic said. "You might as well go to the biggest guy on the block and get their blessing."