The lightning-quick emergence of cable's carrier-grade Wi-Fi business is well timed, given the ongoing degradation of the business that built the cable industry, video services.
Analysts predict cable Wi-Fi will grow, in about three years time, to become the primary mobile network, ahead of cellular. But what will the economics of these networks look like? How exactly will they be monetized? How much revenue might they bring in?
There's a lot about cable Wi-Fi we don't know right now. But there's a lot we do know, and our latest FierceCable feature tries to wrap its head around the current state of the initiative. Cable companies including Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), Cox, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Bright House and Cablevision (NYSE: CVC) are placing pedal to the metal in terms of hotspot deployment, but spending little in additional capital to make this happen.
There's unprecedented cooperation between operators, as they share hotspots to expand the reach of their networks. And there's increasing use of Wi-Fi by consumers, who now prefer the technology over largely capped cellular to consume data.
Our feature can be read here.