Cable’s Community Wi-Fi Challenge

[Commentary] As cable operators such as Comcast push ahead with policies that turn home gateways into quasi-public hotspots, it’s becoming clear that a big challenge ahead will be centered on educating consumers and allaying their fears, and less so on the technology that's driving it.

When Comcast announced in 2013 that it was starting to broadcast a separate, public “XfinityWifi” in a growing number of home-side Wi-Fi-capable gateways in select markets, I figured it wouldn’t be long before stories in local markets started to surface detailing consumer concerns about this budding home-as-a-hotspot idea, which has already taken firm root in markets such as Europe.

While some consumers clearly understood the network-expanding benefits of an approach, many others were upset that it was an opt-out program, or were fearful that a gateway emitting this separate network ID was somehow siphoning some of the bandwidth they were paying good money for. Still others had security concerns or flat out didn't trust Comcast and were sure that company was in some way up to no good. And many of those are valid concerns, of course. But they are also concerns that Comcast has tried to address in its communications to customers when this capability got turned on.

It’s clear that Comcast is trying to get the message out and to get out ahead of these concerns. But it’s similarly clear that not everyone bothers to read them the first time through, meaning it will take a prolonged effort to educate consumers, hammer home these messages, and (maybe) put these worries at ease.