How Cable Can Capture the Mobile Internet

T-Mobile US chief John Legere believes the future of cable may be up in the airwaves. “[W]hat’s happening in the world is all content is going to be Internet, and all Internet will be viewed” on mobile devices, he said. “That is all you need to know to understand everything that’s going to happen from Disney to Comcast to Verizon to T-Mobile.”

Legere’s comments are an endorsement of the idea that the Internet increasingly becomes a mobile experience, the cable and wireless industries will begin to converge. Such convergence could involve a cable company buying T-Mobile. Even so, as broadband has taken over from video as cable’s primary profit center, it stands to reason cable companies would see wireless as the next frontier. That could mean cable and wireless companies increasingly tread on each other’s turf and angle for each other’s customers.

Cable companies have three options for getting into wireless: 1) an agency agreement with one of the four big US wireless operators, 2) leasing carriers’ networks and selling service under their own retail brand, or 3) buy their own spectrum and develop networks. The agency model would make the most sense because it would allow cable operators to enter wireless, and offer mobile-video services, without being too exposed to bruising wireless-industry competition. Buying spectrum could give cable companies leverage in negotiating such arrangements.