[opendtv] Re: AT&T backs Verizon, TMo hesitates on LTE

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:01:43 -0400

At 7:00 PM -0400 8/21/10, Albert Manfredi wrote:
Well, that doesn't make any sense. Sorry, Craig.

If the cellco's cellular structure is used to carry the broadcasts, presumably what could happen is that every viewer would initiate a unique call, just as they do for any service from that cellular infrastructure. So now you have each user taking up all those Mb/s individually, because each one has a unique session set up. In the evening especially, when lots of people are watching TV, that would be very wasteful. Which means, very expensive. You see this, right? Instead of maybe a dozen 6 MHz channels to serve even millions of viewers, you'd have millions of viewers each one asking for (at least) his own 6 MHz channel. Short range, perhaps, but the scaling doesn't make sense.

You are not making sense Bert. I said that they would carry BROADCAST streams in the clear.

The only change would be that the infrastructure would be on the same towers as the cellular infrastructure and operated by the same service companies that now maintain most of the cellular infrastructure for the telcos.

And hopefully the shift to lower towers and lower power would allow for better spectral re-use of the frequencies that are used for these broadcast streams.


Oh, you say, no, you would actually broadcast the signal? It still makes no sense. Broadcasting the signal over a cellular infrastructure means you are dedicating the same amount of bandwidth, or more, than the TV stations are already using now. Except that you are having to depend on a dense mesh of towers in a MFN. No spectrum savings, but much more expensive infrastructure. More towers, big backhaul network to tie all the towers together (much like a cable plant), much more labor-intensive, and so on.

We disagree.


Either way, if it costs MORE to transmit, how exactly are you going to convince people that the service can still be FOTA? What would happen is that the cellco would be happy to oblige, of course, but it would charge consumers more for the TV service than it would for just voice and the extra it already charges for data. (Oh yeah, cellcos already do that for TV programming.) With all you've been saying about ad revenue being inadequate, what makes you think the broadcasters could afford to make up the difference?

Never mind.

When you actually read and understand what I said try again.

Regards
Craig


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