Comunicaciones Moviles

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Wireless Strategies: The Partnership’s The Thing
Cable operators are working with wireless carriers and with other MSOs to claim a piece of the high-speed mobile broadband pie and to make sure they have a 4G future.
Linda Hardesty, Associate Editor
June 1, 2010 Wireless wasprominent at the Cable Show in Los Angeles last month, with a panel of top executives discussing how cable will play in this space. Cathy Avgiris, who in March was promoted to senior vice president and general manager of communications and data services for Comcast Cable, said, "I think it's cool you have an entire panel here talking about wireless." Avgiris, who is credited with growing Comcast'sresidential phone business, now is responsible for all aspects of Comcast’s Xfinity Internet and voice services as well as the operator’s "High-Speed 2go" 3G/4G wireless data service. The fact that Comcast has consolidated its Internet, voice and wireless services under one leader is a good example of how the traditional silos of services are going away. Comcast is "making our products moresynergistic," Avgiris explained. Comcast has several partnership arrangements for delivery of its wireless products. For its High-Speed 2go mobile broadband service, Comcast has a 3G team deal with Sprint and a WiMAX (4G) agreement with Clearwire. In addition, the MSO has struck deals with Time Warner Cable and Cablevision to share Wi-Fi coverage in the New York City metropolitan area, making it easier forsubscribers from each of the companies to keep their Wi-Fi devices connected. As a result, Cablevision has made Wi-Fi the centerpiece of its wireless strategy. "We're about 18 months into deployment of ‘Optimum WiFi’ that extends our high-speed data service outside the home where people are likely to be," said John Bickham, president/cable and communications for Cablevision Systems, during theCable Show panel. Optimum WiFi is a symmetrical 1.5 Mbps service, but Bickham said the speeds will be raised "in the not too distant future." Optimum WiFi was launched in September 2008; since then, Cablevision has continued building the network, deploying tens of thousands of access points within its footprint. "We've created a mesh network in an outdoor environment," continued Bickham. Cablevisionalso is using Wi-Fi as a complement to its high-speed data offering. "Over half of our data customers have Wi-Fi in the home," he said, "and, obviously, there is a proliferation of Wi-Fi devices today."

Everything Everywhere
At last year's Cable Show, the hot topic was “TV Everywhere,” and one of the new buzzwords was "authentication" as it related to video being made available online. But in2010, authentication also has become important as it relates to mobile services. Consumers want access to all of their services on all of their devices, and operators are scrambling to authenticate them. For Optimum WiFi, Cablevision allows its subscribers to register their devices online and then, when they're in an Optimum WiFi coverage area, the device

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automatically is registered and authenticated. According to Bickham, in the fiscal quarter when auto-authentication went live, the number of Wi-Fi sessions spiked to 5 million from 3 million. "The number of devices being registered goes up each month," he said. "Where Optimum WiFi has existed for the longest time,about 17 percent of high-speed data customers use it in any given month." The third partner in the New York City Wi-Fi collaboration, Time Warner Cable, also is pursuing 3G and 4G wireless. "Our primary method of getting into wireless is with Clearwire and Sprint, rolling out both 3G and 4G," said Mike Roudi, group vice president/mobile services for TWC. Service is "up and running in the Carolinas,...