Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
Every once in awhile, something wireless technology-related gets picked up by more centralized sections of the media that don’t traditionally cover such things, and to the amusement of many (mostly me) gets blown out of proportion.
That happened again this week on the heels of Cablevision Systems’ announcement that it planned to offer Wi-Fi phone services that can tap into the more than 1.1 million Wi-Fi hot spots it has deployed under the Optimum brand. The service seemed to generate broad interest as it was claimed to be the first official Wi-Fi phone offering from a cable television provider.
While true, there are a number of companies out there offering similar services: Republic Wireless and Scratch Wireless, for example.
For those not up on the local cable television monopolies, Cablevision offers service that covers the New York City area, which is also the geographic footprint where these 1.1 million hot spots operate. New York City is also home to many news organizations, which somehow managed to latch on to this news while at the same time dealing with the most dangerous blizzard of all time, or at least since the last time it snowed 2 inches in New York City.
This latching, luckily, resulted in some awesome commentary on the topic provided by the folks at Bloomberg.
(I probably should have warned you to not attempt drinking milk during the watching of that video, as it would be impossible to prevent that milk from shooting from your nose in the most painful and unpleasant manner. My bad.)
Wait! Put that milk down! There’s more!
As you can see from these video clips (so you know it’s true) on the Internet (making it doubly true) with one citing a post on LinkedIn (triple true … the trifecta!) it’s only a matter of time before such languishing entities as Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile US and Sprint are bankrupt. I mean, why would anyone pay any money at all to a traditional wireless operator when they can have free Wi-Fi phone service?!?!
Cablevision helps its case by comparing the $10 per month it will charge its current cable customers or $30 per month for non-cable customers to access this “low-cost” service, noting it’s up to 80% cheaper “than leading cellular offerings.” Those looking to take advantage of this screaming deal will also have access to exactly one exciting mobile device in the form of Motorola’s Moto G – priced at $100. Sure, it’s not an iPhone, or for that matter a device that most people would actually want, but Cablevision did note The Wall Street Journal said it was the “best low-cost smartphone,” so there’s that.
In staking its claim to being competitive from a service standpoint with traditional cellular phone service, Cablevision takes the angle that consumers spend a significant portion of their time in areas with Wi-Fi service. They even cite the ever-present Cisco numbers that claim 93% of all data traffic generated by mobile or portable devices in the U.S. was carried via a Wi-Fi network in 2013.
We will of course leave out any notion that what Cablevision is offering is a smartphone and not a “portable” device, which would include all Wi-Fi-only tablets and laptop computers that by their very nature generate much more data traffic than can be generated by a smartphone. And, we will also not mention that public Wi-Fi hot spots struggle to provide any sense of service quality, while indoor hot spot locations are also generally sitting next to a home phone service that would provide superior voice service quality for an amount that people are already paying.
And, why exactly would anyone want to keep paying for traditional cellphone service? Oh yeah. For those times when they want to make a phone call, send a text message or access the Internet while not within 100 feet of a Wi-Fi hot spot. Or basically when they are in the other 95% of the country and/or may want to move more than 100 feet in any one direction. Handoff? What’s that?
Cablevision is apparently so serious about its Wi-Fi offering that it has filed a lawsuit against Verizon Communications claiming its rival is falsely advertising it has “the fastest Wi-Fi available.”
The Cablevision Wi-Fi announcement reminded me of the recent rumor surrounding Google’s plans to enter the wireless services space as a mobile virtual network operator. That news also brought out the experts predicting the coming demise of the traditional mobile operator.
While I in no way think Google entering the mobile space as an MVNO will result in the demise of a current mobile operator save for purchasing an operator an renaming it Google, at least what the company is rumored to be doing is something I can see people signing up for as a true alternative to what is already out there.
In the case of this Cablevision offering, all I can see happening is consumers having to cart around a second device with limited capabilities.
None of this, of course, should prevent the continued predictions on the impending demise of the traditional mobile operator. I enjoy these as much as the next person who has any idea of how mobile telecommunications works. But, more importantly, I enjoy watching the hilarious commentary that comes along with such hyperbole.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
• So, it’s over. After more than two months of bidding across 340 rounds, punctuated by numerous delays due to technical glitches, weather and pesky holidays, the Federal Communications Commission’s Auction 97 came to a quiet end this week.
The length of this auction was best summed up by the folks at Lemay-Yates Associates, who noted:
“When we suggested to ‘stay tuned’ in our note of Nov. 21, 2014, … the auction had completed 23 rounds. We could not have predicted that would have been 7% of the rounds and only half the proceeds. And that we would have to stay tuned not just through Thanksgiving, but Hanukkah, Christmas, New Years’, Martin Luther King Day, and then some.”
While the last few weeks witnessed only token advances in the total amount of money raised, there is no denying the fact that the nearly $44.9 billion in proceeds was one hell of an amount of money, and double what anyone pre-auction was predicting. Well done FCC.
Now the fun comes when we find out who those crazy operators were that offered up those billions and how they plan to pay the tab while at the same time keeping a little on the side to actually put that spectrum to use.
• Finally, Comcast has received its fair share of negative attention regarding its questionable customer service moves. However, the latest dig into the cable giant’s customer interactions is just funny.
If you are going to be a jerk, you might as well have a sense of humor.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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