telecompetitor

ViaSat announced it will begin offering what it calls “virtually unlimited” satellite broadband service. The service will be available immediately to new customers in Florida and will also be available in some other limited markets, but the company anticipates expanding service moving forward.

The “virtually unlimited” offering, which will carry the name “Freedom,” gives customers unlimited lower-speed bandwidth and at least 150 gigabytes of data for the higher-bandwidth services, which Farr said should be plenty for most customers. And even customers who exceed that level will not be throttled back immediately -- and possibly not at all.

Not only are the largest telecommunications companies and cable companies dramatically changing their revenue sources, but the basic “product” has become a bundle of services, anchored by broadband services of two types: high speed Internet access and video entertainment.

So the largest US cable TV companies now arguably are Internet service providers with substantial video and voice operations, while AT&T’s fixed networks segment might become a business driven by video entertainment, while it continues to have significant high speed access and voice operations.

Cincinnati Bell has joined the roster of network operators who have announced plans to offer broadband at speeds up to 1 Gbps. Service will be available beginning September 8. The gigabit service will be known as Fioptics Gigabit Internet. The existing fiber-to-the-home infrastructure in Cincinnati supports the company’s triple play of high-speed Internet, voice and video service.

With unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum becoming increasingly crowded, equipment manufacturers and service providers are pushing to make more spectrum available on an unlicensed basis -- and while substantial progress has been made on that front, more work remains, according to investor research firm Bernstein.

Associated partner Paul Margie at DC law firm Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis shed light on several open issues – including how much unlicensed spectrum is likely to be made available through the voluntary TV broadcast spectrum auction in the 600 MHz band, the three-tier plan that the FCC has proposed for unlicensed spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band, and Globalstar’s proposal for a private Wi-Fi network in the 2.4 GHz band. As Margie explained, those are three of the four bands -- including the 5 GHz band -- where additional spectrum could be made available to support Wi-Fi or similar offerings.

An announcement from ADTRAN touts the efforts of C Spire to create a new “Silicon South” economy in Mississippi through gigabit connectivity. The release also notes that ADTRAN is supplying fiber-to-the-home equipment to C Spire to support its gigabit deployment.

AT&T Group President and Chief Strategy Officer John Stankey offered additional details about the fixed wireless broadband offering that the company previously agreed to make available in some rural areas if the company’s plan to purchase DirecTV is approved by regulators.

Stankey revealed AT&T’s plans to deploy the service in areas where the company has fallow licensed spectrum and that the service is expected to support sustained peak data rates of 10-20 Mbps. AT&T envisions its fixed wireless offering being sold as part of a double play that would also include DirecTV video service, thereby helping to minimize churn.

About 25% of the people in the areas that AT&T would target for the service currently have no terrestrial broadband offering, while 30% or less have only low-speed DSL, Stankey said.

AT&T announced that current Austin, Texas based subscribers to their 300 Mbps GigaPower Internet service will soon see upgrades that deliver 1 Gbps, fulfilling GigaPower’s initial launch promise.

Existing customers will not need to do anything to receive the 1 Gbps upgrade.

AT&T reacted quickly to Google’s announcement to bring Google Fiber to Austin, issuing a press release about an hour after Google’s Austin expansion announcement.

AT&T reports that tens of thousands of Austin residents have access to GigaPower, but they have not revealed many details regarding the availability and penetration of the service. Regardless, it does appear as if AT&T will have a first mover advantage in Austin with Gigabit services.

There doesn’t seem to be much consensus about what Sprint’s decision to drop its plan to purchase T-Mobile means for the companies and for the industry in general.

While some industry observers expect both companies to focus on internal growth and/or to consider alternative merger-and-acquisition options, others say this is a posturing move and the companies will take another go at merging after the next election, when they hope to find a regulatory environment more open to such a deal.

The recent Aereo Supreme Court case, while not exactly positive for Aereo, may help drive cloud DVR adoption, according to Parks Associates’ Research Analyst Glenn Hower.

And with growing interest in the application, video service providers “…can experiment with these cloud services as strategies to build subscriber loyalty and increase revenues.”

Recent Parks’ research reveals that 45% of US pay-TV subscribers find cloud DVR technology very appealing. Subscribers have particular interest in unlimited storage space and two-week catch-up services for video, according to the research findings.

With so many gigabit announcements, it almost feels like a ‘land grab,’ particularly with AT&T.

In a matter of months, AT&T is positioning itself as a major fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) gigabit broadband provider, at least in the context of the number of press releases they have issued. Time will tell whether those press releases actually translate into large numbers of AT&T FTTH subscribers.