Second Chance at Wireless - Dwayne Goldsmith

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Dwayne Goldsmith

Second Chance at Wireless
November 8, 2006

Ten years ago, those words brought to mind a tremendously successful European telecommunications company. How things have changed. Today, cable and wireless describe the video industry’s foray into the cellular business.

The FCC’s recent auction of advanced wireless spectrum found a few new participants. Namely, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and Bright House Networks decided to partner with Sprint Nextel to acquire spectrum that reaches close to 100 million homes. Hopefully, this venture will fare better than the original Cable & Wireless.

Most analysts tout this as the cable provider’s attempt to pursue the “Quadruple Play” bundle, but I think this venture is far more strategic and significant to the video industry.Cable operators -- especially Comcast and Cox -- have felt the wrath of Verizon’s value proposition.

Verizon’s FiOS services include Internet-protocol TV, super-speed Internet access and voice lines delivered over a high-quality fiber network.Verizon has solved its last-mile problem by investing billions in the next-generation high-speed network.

Unfortunately, it will take a decade to achieve momentum and fend off the siege that cable companies have laid to the base of local customers controlled by the phone monopolies.

My belief is that a few enlightened cable television companies have decided to solve their last-mile problem in a wireless fashion. Does anyone really think that Sprint’s EVDO network will serve as the wire-free infrastructure for third-screen video?

This venture represents much more to the network landscape -- the first step toward the fourth-generation cellular network.Several experts agree that this move is meant to one-up those FTTH ventures by “video-challenged” local phone companies.

“Cable companies realize the opportunity to leverage investments in fiber backbone, without spending billions to rebuild the local coaxial loop.Wireless devices that transmit 8 Meg of bidirectional, managed bandwidth -- meaning television-quality video – are imminent,” said Jesse Russell, CEO and Founder of IncNETWORKS, a 4G equipment company.Mr. Russell holds 75 patents in cellular and communications technology and invented digital cellular while at Bell Laboratories.

If he is right, then cable executives will rewrite the rules of network deployment -- partnering with a traditional cellular company to deploy multi-meg local access at a fraction of the cost of FiOS. Sprint Nextel is known to be a leading proponent of 4G technology, but until recently, conventional thinking anticipates the technology is at least five years away. Imagine, HDTV on your PDA, video calls on your cell phone, and the Michigan-Ohio State game on your wireless laptop.That sounds a bit more interesting than e-mail and a converged voice-mail box. Let’s see what happens.

Posted by Dwayne Goldsmith on November 8, 2006 | Comments (2)

November 12, 2006
In response to: Second Chance at Wireless
dcohen9 commented:

I just fear that we may be approaching a point where there's too much wireless spectrum in use. Just for a very local and limited example, I was fortunate enough to attend the Rutgers game Thursday night and, while tailgating in the parking lot, we all had considerable trouble getting cell-phone signals. Yet my friends who went to Rutgers said this was normally not a problem in the area by the stadium, and it must be because there were 50,000 people around there, all of them probably using their cells at some point. Now, adding HD video? Granted, the technology will improve in five years (heck, five minutes), but it still scares me a little.

September 14, 2007
In response to: Second Chance at Wireless
Phillip Van Miller commented:

From the desk of Unitedcallingnetwork. Why is there so much future shock. You had no control over the four track the eight track the cassette to CD or bluegray. We will be in a wireless environment, and I think that Jesse Russell is right on point remember at one point in our technical lives Bell laboratories. Didn't talk to Cisco Systems, but boy has that changed and you actually think John Chambers bought Linksys for nothing let's be real gentlemen is only so much we can do a copper. I love to walk into a brand-new home, and it's all wireless looking in seeking to find an intelligent network to interact with. Anyway so much for my thoughts, president and CEO, and don't forget somebody tell the former chairman of the board of AT&T Bob Allen amp's mobility would never work. And now we call them cell phones, what a laugh.