No, but those numbers sound about right to make it worth while to a Cable Co.
There is no benefit for a cable co to offer wifi, when they already offer cable, that technically can deliver better speed inside the building. So they need to price their Wifi, at about the same revenue that they'd receive if they offered Cable in a building that had a wireless competitor in the building. But these offerings give the MTB owners an option to use the Cable Co to have what ever flavor they desire. I believe many of these things are responses to ruling preventing exclusive deals with a Cable Co. When a MTU owner has to chose between cable and wifi, they chose Cable. Without exclusives being inforcable, the only way Cable Cos can combat it, is if they offer the services of the Wifi competitor. MTU buildings is one area that they Cable Cos can leverage their Tripple play to squash competition. From our experience, the Cable Cos, sold broadband for $59/mon, we came in offering $30/mon, then the Cable Cos' offered broadband for Free, since they still got revenue from VOIP and TV. The secret to Multi-Tenant services is finding buildings that aren't served, where the business model justification is the "Wireless backhaul" to the building, not necessarilly to the suite. In the Cable Co's model, the benefit of Wifi very well might be "quicker provisioning time", which is basically immediately. I'm seeing many applicatiosn where "wireless" offering is really just the last 100 feet extension of a network, where it is to add convenience. A perfect example is Real Estate office, where Wifi LAN is preferred for the mobile agent. Cable Cos and LECs are getting smarter, and realizing the need to offer these value adds. Comcast recognized the value of Value Add early on. When Comcast first started launching their broadband services in NJ, they required the customer to use the Comcast IT team to purchase Comcast managed Microsoft Exchange Mail, and pay per user, inorder to get cable for business. However, I beleive they learned, forcing their IT department on the consumer was not an effective strategy. But my point, is they understood adding the value. It was jsut a matter of time, before they again convert from just connectivity provider, to value add provider. Once they control more of the market, it will be easier for them. We run into cable conflict all the time. The Cable Co may not have required exclusivity on paper, but they refuse to come, without a certain take rate, and refuse toi come as long as we have an easement to serve the building. Landlords have specifically denied our applicatiosn to serve the building, so their would be more demand for broadband, to encourage the Cable Co to come. Consumers are expecting Cable Broadband to be there. Of course, the buildings we are successful in serving, is because we've convinced the landlords, the value of our service, or where the demand was large enough for multiple providers. The question that comes up is... Will landlords pay the upfront money, to get the cable company to come to build wifi? They weren't willing to pay us. We got many of our agreements, because we were willing to pay for the installation ourselves. Charging landlords to build broadband to the suite is not a new idea. Even fairchild tried it 15 years ago, and failed. There was always a competitor willing to pay for the infrastructure, to have the opportunity to come. If Comcast gets the MSO to pay $50,000, then I'm not charging enough :-) What we are often seeing is the Cable Co cherry picking. They are just to busy. And perfectly happy not building their network out to a facility for free. What Comcast has is a commodity model, that is super easy to manage (docsis) compared to wifi. I personally thing Cable Cos will fail miserably offering Wifi. It requires a completely different type of support, than they are accustomed to. I personally think Cable Cos would be much better off buying local WISPSto manage their local infrastrcuture, or contracting the management out to a Wireless specialist company. For example, a Wayport type company that is national or local WISPs. In my experience, I have seen providers getting away with getting property owners to commit to paying monthy for a defined number of suites, or an upfront fee covering the installation. But I have never seen a provider get away with charging for both, with the Building Owner footing the bill. There are exceptions I see. For example, in Baltimore MD, local legislation gave tax benefits and incentived to builders who built new properties ready for broadband. Tom DeReggi RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rogelio" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 11:25 AM Subject: [WISPA] MSOs investing heavily in wi-fi rollouts > One trend I'm seeing is for cable companies to purchase a ubiquitous > wifi infrastructure in new areas. > > These numbers aren't too far off from some numbers I saw yesterday: > > --$50K to put in ubiquitous wifi for a time share condo (retail is way > more, like $70K; but MSOs get discounts) > --$20/mo for each unit > --$20/mo * 100 units * 12 months = $24,000/year in revenue the cable > cable company can ear > > => paid off equipment in approx two years > > Anyone else seeing those numbers / trends? > > In fact, it seems as if bringing cable companies into the deals has been > a sure way to close these large purchases in some cases. > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > WISPA Wants You! Join today! > http://signup.wispa.org/ > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
