iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
 ·Comcast
| Pricing sucks You can get $80 4G + 3G from Sprint, or $50 4G from Clear...WITHOUT having to bundle additional services from TWC. Unless TWC adds special sauce to the network on their end like Sprint does (no caps on upload speeds vs. caps on upload speeds) there's no compelling reason to choose the cable company over the provider who actually services the areas.
This is in contrast to Comcast, which actually provides discounted service vs. Clear's own plans.
FWIW I'm thinking the big cableco bucks going into this deal were primarily to get the cablecos to give Clear cheap backhaul capacity; when you've got an HFC network the buildout costs for fiber to the tower are going to be lowish. Especially vs. paying an arm, a leg and a firstborn for a telco circuit. |
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rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | Your title echoes my thoughts. If these were stand-alone prices that did not require you to have other services with TWC and then they discounted if you also bundled, maybe they wouldn't be so bad. As it is now, both "elite" packages require you to be an existing Road Runner subscriber. That means you'll also likely have to be TV subscribers since it's common for folks to bundle cable HSI and TV packages. So this service isn't replacing anything. It's an add-on...and a pretty steep one at that! |
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| reply to iansltx
I completely agree.
At least Comcast's wireless bundle offers significant savings compared to purchasing each service separately, this offers none. Comcast has said they'll have 40% on wireless after their promo pricing ends. I feel bad for you guys in TWC territory, they must hate their customers.
I thought the same thing about cableco provided backhaul to Clear, and still hope to see that. But, we haven't seen that yet on any meaningful scale at all. More than 90% of Clear's towers are on their internal wireless backhaul network. |
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | But that internal wireless backhaul network has to have a wireline backhaul somewhere. |
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| True enough.
But those are "fiber aggregation points." And they only represent 5-10% of their sites. That's just not a meaningfully large number.
And while that fiber could be coming from a cableco, it could also come from metro fiber provider, like Level 3, XO, TW Telecom, Zayo, etc.
Clearwire has said they'd like to have more fiber backhaul (who wouldn't), but it's either just not available or not affordable. So I guess they're primarily using this wireless backhaul strategy, as it's the only way to go.
One would think cablecos would make their plant available to Clearwire at reasonable cost. Given that Clearwire is their wireless meal ticket, and their traditional telco enemies are entrenched in wireless, and make lots of money there. But for whatever reason, that level of cooperation isn't there yet. |
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