Jeff Baumgartner

Cable’s history with mobile services is full of stops, starts and outright disasters.

Now, many of the nation’s top cable operators have hitched their wagons to Wi-Fi, deploying hundreds of thousands of hotspots out on the HFC network coupled with roaming agreements, and an increasing use of in-home gateways as neighborhood hotspots.

Although Wi-Fi has traditionally been a fixed wireless technology, we’re already seeing evidence of next-gen Wi-Fi networks that can enable seamless handoffs between those hotspots, with Time Warner Cable taking the lead with its announced widespread deployment of Hotspot 2.0 technology.

As evidenced by Comcast’s TWC merger filing, Comcast has also been considering a so-called “Wi-Fi First” approach that would favor Wi-Fi over other connectivity options, namely cellular. But despite that important multiple service operator roaming partnership that remains limited to four card-carrying members (albeit large ones), Wi-Fi isn’t everywhere (yet), and there's still some doubt that it can offer mobility that is on par with cellular networks, so any notion of ubiquitous coverage still requires access to the cellular network. Cable doesn’t have one that it can call its own.

Timed with the Senate hearing on the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal, Comcast announced that it has boosted broadband speeds for two tiers in its Northeast division, and had deployed more than 1 million WiFi hotspots.

On the wireline side in the Northeast, a division made up of systems stretching across 14 states from Maine to Virginia that serve approximately one-third of Comcast's subscriber base, the cable operator bumped the max downstream capabilities of its “Xfinity Internet Blast” tier from 50 Mbps to 105 Mbps, and its “Xfinity Extreme” tier from 105 Mbps to 150 Mbps, without raising the price of those offerings.

On the WiFi side, Comcast said it has deployed more than 1 million hotspots, a number that factors in quasi-public hotspots (deployed in outdoor and in business locations) available to other MSOs that are part of the “CableWiFi” roaming consortium (Cox Communications, Bright House Networks, Cablevision Systems and Time Warner Cable) and home-side “neighborhood” wireless DOCSIS gateways that emit a separate “XfinityWiFi” signal that is accessible to Comcast cable modem subs.

Comcast said it marks the 13th time in the past years that the multiple services operator (MSO) had increased its broadband speeds. Comcast did not announce when it would expand those speed increases to other areas, but a spokesman said the plan is to do so on a market-to-market basis.

The saturated US pay TV industry achieved an unfortunate first when the top 13 multichannel video programming distributors, representing about 94% of the market, lost a collective 105,000 subscribers in 2013, Leichtman Research Group revealed in report.

While that’s not good news for the pay-TV industry as a whole, it’s not seriously damaging, either.

“2013 was the first year for multi-channel video industry losses, but the modest losses represent only about 0.1% of all subscribers,” said Bruce Leichtman, president and principal analyst for LRG, in a statement. “While the overall market remains fairly flat, further share-shifting has taken place. Cable providers now have a 52% share of the top multi-channel video subscribers in the US, compared to a 58% share three years ago.”

TiVo has surpassed 2.5 million subscribers in Europe, thanks in large part to rollouts by Virgin Media in the UK, Com Hem in Sweden, and Ono in Spain.

Broken down further, TiVo said its now covers nearly half of all subscribers at Virgin Media, which is now part of Liberty Global, and a third of ONO subscribers. While that number provides another indicator that TiVo’s seeing solid momentum across the pond with tier one multiple service operators (MSOs), it also spotlights the challenges it continues to face in the US, where it’s primarily working with tier 2/3 cable operators.

TiVo ended its fiscal fourth quarter with 4.2 million total subscribers after adding a record 313,000 subs via pay-TV partnerships during the period. TiVo’s last reported grand total comprised 966,000 TiVo-owned subs and 3.2 million coming from partners. Given the subscriber numbers, that means fewer than 700,000 TiVo subs are coming way of partnerships with US-based cable operators such as Suddenlink Communications, Mediacom Communications, and Atlantic Broadband, among others. TiVo also sells service in Canada, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, and Taiwan.

Cable operators are well positioned to produce a new revenue stream through partnerships that support the rollout of small cell networks designed to beef up the capacity of mobile networks in concentrated, high-traffic areas, a recent Amdocs/Real Wireless survey shows.

According to a survey of the survey of 40 national and large cable operators and mobile network operators (MNOs) in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific, about 70% of the MNOs are prepared to use small cell networks rolled out by or owned by a third party, such as a cable operator. Of the mobile network operators surveyed, about 70% expect to have “significant” small cell deployments underway by 2018, though many predict a slow rollout due to several technical and operational challenges. MNOs surveyed identified several challenges that could hinder the speed of small cell rollouts, including project management (65%), negotiation with partners (45%), and “various technical aspects” (40%).

The survey also showed that 85% respondents viewed automation as critical or important for small cell deployment, and 80% said their existing processes and tools are inadequate. Multiple service operators, Amdocs and Real Wireless said, are “well placed” to overcome several challenges faced by MNOs as they pursue small cell strategies, citing cable’s expertise in the installation and maintenance of dense networks in the field. About 40% of the MSOs surveyed have plans to support small cell deployments.

In case you missed the scuttlebutt, Comcast is reportedly working on an online video service that will compete with YouTube and offer access to gobs of video goodness on the usual suspects (tablets, smartphones, PCs) as well as the set-top box.

How far along that project is and precisely how it will match up with YouTube isn’t known yet, but a person familiar with the idea said Comcast is indeed interested in developing a YouTube-like service, but also confided that the company is not all that close to pulling the trigger on a test. But it’s clear that Comcast has started to build up a stock of YouTube’ish content along with the technical means to deliver niche online video “channels” and a cloud-based video pipeline and architecture that could support storage and playback to myriad platforms.

[March 11]

The cable bundle is about to get bigger…and maybe a bit more electrifying. After hints of a cable-energy partnership bubbled up in January, Comcast and a unit of NRG Energy have lit up a pilot that offers a variety of perks and rewards, including prepaid Visa cards and three free months of HBO, Showtime or Starz, to Comcast subs in Pennsylvania who enroll in of two new energy programs. The test program, called Energy Rewards, teams Independence Energy Group (IEG), a wholly owned subsidiary of NRG Energy, with Comcast. SNL Kagan analyst Deborah Yao first spotted the Energy Rewards Web site. A Comcast spokesman confirmed that the trial got underway. The perk-filled Energy Rewards program, offered only to Comcast subscribers in Pennsylvania, currently offers two energy plans: a six-month, variable “Guaranteed Savings” plan that offers a 10% savings off the utility’s price, and a fixed plan that locks in a price for 12-month period. There are no cancellation fees, according to the Energy Rewards FAQ. The local utility will continue to bill those customers for electricity, but Energy Rewards members are also in line to obtain several special offers, including a $25 Visa Prepaid Card for enrolling in the program, and a three month “extended freeview” of HBO, Showtime or Starz. [March 11]

Comcast Business announced that Springfield Public Schools in Union County (NJ), has selected the unit’s Ethernet service to support a tech learning environment for more than 2,400 students across the district’s five schools.

In addition to providing the Internet bandwidth (from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps) needed by the thousands of laptops and other mobile devices that access the school district’s network, Comcast Business will also provide a connection between Springfield Public Schools and its primary data center for the secure transfer of all critical administrative and educational data.

Springfield Public Schools is a five-school district that includes one early childhood learning center, two elementary schools, a middle school and one high school. The district offers a “1:1 learning environment” whereby it provides laptops for students in grades 6-12 as well as for all faculty and administrators. The Pre K-5 classrooms have a minimum of four laptops and tablets per classroom. Ethernet services are one of Comcast's growth engines. Overall, Comcast business service revenues grew to $876 million in the fourth quarter of 2013, up from $699 million in the year-ago quarter, and $3.24 billion for all of 2013, compared to $2.56 billion in 2012. About 20% of revenues in the category come from mid-sized businesses served by the multiple service operator's Metro Ethernet platform.

[March 11]

Looking to instill loyalty among existing subs while trying to lure new customers to its wireless and wireline service mix, Verizon Communications launched a “Double Up” promo that doles out monthly $20 discounts to subs who take both FiOS and Verizon Wireless services. The promo, targeted to subs on the FiOS Quantum triple-play (with broadband service of 50 Mbps or higher) who also take a Verizon Wireless LTE service with at least one smartphone, are in line for those monthly discounts ($10 off their wireless bill, and $10 off their FiOS bill) over two years, meaning they’ll save a total of $480 during that span. Verizon is offering the promo to new and existing customers – with or without a contract -- through April 19. [March 7]

AT&T likes the results it’s getting with its initial fiber-to-the-premises “U-verse with GigaPower” deployment in Austin so much that it is preparing to unleash the 1-Gig-capable platform in Dallas later in 2014. Like Google Fiber’s build-out approach, AT&T GigaPower is offering access on a demand-driven basis, asking residents to influence the fiber upgrade locations by voting on the Web. AT&T has not disclosed how many customers are on GigaPower, but has said it’s currently available in “tens of thousands” of homes.

[March 7]