[opendtv] Re: IEEE Ericsson article on use of LTE for TV

  • From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2012 07:23:47 -0400

At 3:58 AM -0400 6/20/12, Albert Manfredi wrote:
Phones are more or less equivalent to the STBs supplied by MVPDs, Craig. The MVPDs get to decide what these STBs will or will not support. For exactly the same reasons. 

Guess you could not sleep either...

;-)
There is no equivalency here. In most cases, STBs are rented to MVPD subscribers, while phones are always sold to the customer. Cable STBs are built to cable system specifications by a small oligopoly of suppliers; innovation is nearly non-existent. Unlike the phone industry, which was busted in 1984, cable companies are still allowed to control the on premises equipment; it is a lucrative portion of their service. This picture is changing, slowly, with cable card, but 2-way cable card TVs are still rare.
Apple played a major role in busting up the cellular industry's control of phones. The telcos still specify the features of many cheap feature phones, but smart phones are beginning to dominate sales of handsets.
What happens if Apple, Google (Motorola), or Microsoft finance the devices, which 
have programmable SIMs that allow you to buy bits from any carrier?
Obviously, they won't be pleased. But this doesn't mean that these cellcos are about to give up their control, either. Do you hear anyone saying that the cellcos will allow any old customer phone on their net? Similarly, did we ever get those generic cable STBs that customers could buy on their own, to connect to any digital cable system?
Celcos are required to let any phone on their networks, as long as they meet minimum standards. But you will need a system specific SIM. This is no different that the attachment rules for wireline services. 

Regards
Craig


----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org 
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word 
unsubscribe in the subject line.

Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. opendtv
  3. Archive
  4. 06-2012