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

  • From: "Albert Manfredi" <bert22306@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2012 19:32:32 -0400

Craig Birkmaier wrote:


A bunch of good stuff for a change...
Well, uh, thanks. But it makes me wonder why it took so long to get the points across. But I guess that wouldn't be "for a change."
As far as I'm concerned, the bottom line is, a shift of all OTA TV to LTE cellular, naturally today's favorite cell scheme, will hasten the demise of local OTA broadcasters. And with them, FOTA TV (unless in the form of some super-restricted government mandated minimum). Although it may well be what the congloms, i.e. the owners of the actual high value content, should be looking into.
And then, after FOTA TV has gone extinct, any free TV, to compete against the various pay TV options, will occur only over the Internet. With various web sites, including those of the congloms themselves. Just like anything else available over the Internet. Some available free, some for a fee.
And the OTA spectrum will become (arguably) "more efficiently used" as a subscription service primarily to mobile devices. Yes, possibly linked to the same subscriptions as other services, e.g. Amazon premium, Netflix, MVPDs, *or* a monthly addition to people's cellular service plans.
2. If broadcasters build their own 2-way net, then you need to wonder whether the telcos' cell phones will tune to those broadcaster freqs. You go on and on about iPhones changing everything, but can your AT&T iPhone use the Verizon 
cell network? Who kept iPhones away from Verizon nets for so long? Was it
really Apple? Hah! The cellcos do retain control.
Apparently Verizon refused to take the deal Apple was offering, in large part 
because of the cost and the loss of control. AT&T took the deal.
I don’t think it's quite like that. What I remember, and what the link below confirms, is that AT&T only "took the deal" if it could get exclusive use of iPhones. The deal with Apple was, you Apple guys don't make the iPhone available to anyone else. Which again shows just how much control the cellcos have over the hardware they allow on their nets. 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/10/confirmed-apple-and-atandt-signed-five-year-iphone-exclusivity-de/

-----------------------------------
Confirmed: Apple and AT&T signed five-year iPhone exclusivity deal -- but is it still valid? 

By Nilay Patel posted May 10th 2010 5:04PM

.....
"The duration of the exclusive Apple-[AT&T] agreement was not 'secret' either. The [plaintiff] quotes a May 21, 2007 USA Today article – published over a month before the iPhone's release – stating, "AT&T has exclusive U.S. distribution rights for five years-an eternity in the go-go cellphone world." 
...
"[T]here was widespread disclosure of [AT&T's] five-year exclusivity and no suggestion by Apple or anyone else that iPhones would become unlocked after two years... Moreover, it is sheer speculation – and illogical – that failing to disclose the five-year exclusivity term would produce monopoly power..."
Now, this all went down in October of 2008, and while it's sort of amazing we hadn't seen it earlier, the real question is whether or not the exclusivity deal is still on the books. (The case is ongoing, but most of the relevant bits have been under seal since 2009.) Contracts can be canceled, amended, and breached in many ways, and AT&T's spotty recent service history plus the explosion of the iPhone and the mobile market in general have given Apple any number of reasons to revisit the deal. In addition, the two companies obviously hit the negotiating table again to hammer out the iPad's pricing plans, and there's no way of knowing whether that deal involves the iPhone as well. But it's nice to finally know for certain that AT&T's initial iPhone exclusivity period was booked until 2012 -- now we just have to see if all this recent chatter means something's changed. 

.....
-----------------------------------------
I know you try very hard to always make Apple the guys with the white hat, but that idea continues to be less that credible. And more so as time passes. 

Bert



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