Cable's 'Unfair Advantage'

Remember back in high school, there were always a few kids that seemed to have everything going for them: smart, good-looking, athletic?  Things just seemed to be easier for them. And then there were the rest of us, happy to settle for one out of three. I wonder sometimes if that’s how mobile carriers feel when they look at cable operators.
 
Cable operators have the wireless market equivalent of smart, good-looking and athletic – they’ve got power, mounting and backhaul. It’s what I call cable’s “unfair advantage.”  At our booth at last month’s Cable Show in Los Angeles, we had the opportunity to talk with many of our cable operator customers about how they’re leveraging their unfair advantage using our gear. They’ve thought of things we hadn’t even imagined when we introduced the BelAir100S, the industry’s first cable strand-mounted, plant powered, DOCSIS enabled Wi-Fi AP, back in October 2005 (the same month we announced that Comcast Interactive Capital had invested in BelAir Networks – now there’s a coincidence). Back then, we thought of the BelAir100S as a great way for cable operators to extend the reach of their broadband infrastructure over the air, as a plant extension for fixed services or for city-wide Wi-Fi networks. 
 
Credit for rewriting the book on what strand-mounted Wi-Fi can do for a cable operator goes to perennial first mover – and BelAir Networks customer – Cablevision. They have deployed Wi-Fi in commercial and high-traffic locations across their footprint, delivering free, on-the-go wireless Internet access, branded Optimum WiFi, to their home broadband customers. As of January 2010, their customers were averaging close to 5 million minutes online every day over the Wi-Fi network. Perhaps Cablevision’s strategy and its effectiveness are best reflected in the comment made by one New York Times reader in response to a glowing review from tech columnist David Pogue: “I’ll tell you one definite thing about Cablevision’s free WiFi: It has kept me from switching to Verizon FiOS.”

This past March, the second-largest cable company in the U.S., Time Warner Cable, launched free Wi-Fi zones in Manhattan, Queens and on Long Island railroad platforms, and announced they were partnering with Cablevision’s Optimum WiFi to provide free seamless wireless internet connectivity to high-speed Internet customers of both companies. Then, in April, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cablevison announced Wi-Fi roaming agreements allowing all of their customers to access any of their Wi-Fi networks in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

In response to the latest announcement, David Pogue weighed in again, writing about “A Convenient, Mysterious Service from Cable Companies” and asking:  “What would cause three cutthroat rivals, who compete for the same customers in the same states, to band together and cooperate like this?”  He generated hundreds of comments. To his credit (and that of his readers), his column the next day clarified the issue nicely:

“First, Cablevision, Time Warner and Comcast do not compete for the same customers. Their services areas are divided up and don’t overlap, so they’re not blood thirsty rivals, as I’d thought.

Second, the cable companies are, in fact, teaming up to fight a common enemy — the phone companies! The free WiFi hot spots are an enticement to ward off defections to Verizon (and its Fios service) and AT&T.”

Remember, those smart, good-looking, and athletic kids?  Well, it turns out they were friends, not rivals. I’m just glad we get to hang out with them now.

Stephen Rayment is co-founder and chief technology officer of BelAir Networks. He brings more than 20 years of product and technology experience in the telecommunications industry – most of that focused on wireless – and has worked extensively with service providers deploying new wireless technologies.