Scott Berry

Comcast Limits User Downloads: Wrong Solution

@Julio -- That's true in the abstract, though most offer mainly consumer and business (the latter little more than bribery to run a server).

What I'd like to see is much more granularity, and in particular some incentives to "trade up". If I have a base 2 Mb/s service, where's the sales pitch to go to 5 or 10 or 20 or 50 Mb/s? If they're truly in the access business that's the model I'd expect.

Comcast Limits User Downloads: Wrong Solution

Careful. QoS is nothing more than a way to control what content you can receive, masquerading as "improved performance".

Higher bandwidth/speed is cheaper to provide (I'm talking infrastructure, here) than QoS. Always has been.

WiMax Empire Poses Continual Threat to the AT&T Network

Everyone here seems to be missing a critical distinction. While there have been some modest successes in WiMax so far, they've all been fixed wireless. No one has (to my knowledge) deployed a successful *mobile* WiMax network--successful in the sense of operation or profitability. There is no 3-year head start over LTE here.

As for Sprint/Clearwire, the latter has mostly been focused on slower 1-2 Mb/s fixed and nomadic deployments, to decidedly mixed customer reviews. Sprint is 8-12 months behind their initial WiMax deployment plans, and that's before the distraction that is being caused by the joint venture.

I suspect both technologies will coexist eventually and perhaps complement each other in some ways. But it's not a slam dunk for WiMax by ANY indication.

FiOS, Cellular Won't Save Verizon - Sanford Bernstein

FiOS is a defensive play to stop erosion on local loop services, with an option on undeveloped bandwidth hungry apps.

Note they are tearing out copper wherever fiber goes in. This sharply reduces opex and allows them to upsell video, which they couldn't before. Line losses to wireless--much going to Verizon anyway--and competition from cable is offset by a lower plant operating expense and revenue upside.

The option comes from future-proofing their outside plant. First fiber to the home wins.

Will TiVo Become Software Inside Your TV?

I beg to differ. There are a few models (LG did this as far back as 05 or 06, I think) with Hard Drive but I don't see it as a trend that consumers will ever adopt. Can you point to many new models that are actually getting sales traction?

Mfrs will price their sets out of the market unless they all conspire to have hard drives. Similar to built-in DVD and VHS players--a niche only. People won't want to repair/replace TV if disc drive fails. Just can't see it.

Will TiVo Become Software Inside Your TV?

While it's true TiVo is going increasingly to an IP licensing business model, they still are working to differentiate their boxes. Furthermore, until they start putting disc drives inside TVs (and I see no reason why mfrs would drive up their prices by doing so), separate DVRs aren't going away.

Incorporating a cable box (tuning, decoding) is a different prospect than incorporating a DVR.

Nationwide WiMAX: Who Benefits?

Wow. Who ever thought sacred cow tipping could be such fun. Good thing Tony Stark lent me one one of his spare suits over the weekend.

@Vlad has this mostly right. Do I think WiMax would be bad for consumers? Hell no, I frankly hope CLWR succeeds, there's a huge demand for what it promises. I'll be first in line.

Do I think the technology itself will fail? No, not at all. I do question whether this implies that everyone who deploys it will succeed, or even has a winning business plan. But I'm happy to be educated.

Can someone point to an existing WiMax deployment that consistently delivers high bandwidth service--fixed or mobile--to an appreciable portion of the local consumer population? (Trials don't count, the ability to scale is important here.) And is the operator solvent? If WiMax is truly "available today" this should be easy.

A good portion of the advantage WiMax has over WiFi is in the higher power allowed in licensed vs. unlicensed spectrum. What is the additional battery drain on your laptop due to the higher power required to achieve this advantage? How much longer will you spend charging your batteries (keeping you wired)?

WiFi has had some successes and some (big) failures in both small muni and larger metro settings. Maybe it will take WiMax many such tries to get it right. How do we know CLWR isn't another WiFi Philadelphia? Plenty of smart people dumped money into that one. For that matter, how do we know it isn't another Metricom?

Finally, @Pullease--"shill for the legacy companies"? Them's fightin' words, mister.

Comcast, Time Warner: The Broadband Salad Bar

bck136: I don't think option 1 will ever happen; wall street won't let them backpedal at this point. I'm saying it's option 2 as you suggest, but that their net neutrality ploy will largely fail, leaving option 2a (tiered service). 2a is sort of a half-assed version of your option 3.

Comcast, Time Warner: The Broadband Salad Bar

chush.net: The telecablecos have to be the only companies I've heard of that try to get you to use less of the thing they're selling. But that's what happens with a fixed price model.

chancer: Only if the Chinese have a wire (or radio) that reaches your house.