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Charter Begins 5G Trials, Laughs Off T-Mobile MVNO Criticism

Charter says it's launching fifth generation (5G) wireless trials, while company CEO Tom Rutledge defended the company's MVNO plan from criticism by T-Mobile. Charter said it will launch a WiFi centric MVNO wireless service sometime in 2018, with backup cellular connectivity provided by Verizon Wireless. T-Mobile CEO John Legere had mocked Charter's MVNO efforts, predicting that the cable industry's initial foray into wireless would be a failure. Legere predicted cable ops would be in "full retreat" from their plans in short order.

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Unsurprisingly, Charter executives disagree.

"We don’t think the T-Mobile comments were correct,” Rutledge said during Charter’s fourth-quarter earnings call. "I don’t want to discuss the details of our plan other than to say T-Mobile doesn’t understand it."

But in addition to the company's MVNO, Charter also confirmed that it has launched 5G trials to better understand the technologies that will eventually make up the as-yet-unfinished 5G standard.

"We intend to use these field trials as learning opportunities to provide us with better insight into the capabilities of our wireline network when attaching radios with high frequency licensed and unlicensed spectrum," said Rutledge, adding that "we believe that our MVNO with Verizon is well suited for the short- and medium-term wireless goals we have. Over the long term, our goals in wireless and mobility, our wireless business plan will broaden, so our approach is flexible."

Details were virtually non-existent for both efforts, but Rutledge said he believed the rise in virtual and augmented reality would drive a thirst for greater wired and wireless capacity.

"When you look at these high-capacity networks of the future, and they're a way out, there are new products that we think will be developed with those low-latency, high-capacity networks including virtual reality products, augmented reality products," said the CEO.

"My sense is many of those products will be not mobile products, they'll be fixed products in the dwelling or the office," he added. "They'll be how you learn and how you play. And so they're less about mobility than they are about capacity and low latency. And I think our network, our WiFi network and our distribution network sets up really well from a total capital cost perspective of creating those kind of products."

Of course with Charter rumored as a potential buyer for T-Mobile in what's expected to be a new telecom sector consolidation rush, the two companies could find themselves under the same roof before long.
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Evergreener
Sent By Grocery Clerks
join:2001-02-20
Evergreen, CO

1 recommendation

Evergreener

Member

Is it any wonder...

With all the false starts and overhyped, underperforming wireless initiatives over the years, is it any wonder that Charter would want to do some field trials and get some hands-on experience with "5G" technology, especially with such high frequency / low penetration spectrum being used (I know, I know, the technology is SOOO good now that penetration won't be an issue )?

Regardless, it sounds like the key issue here for T-Mobile is that Charter is doing an MVNO deal with Verizon and not them.
kinda pissed
join:2012-06-06
Newsoms, VA

kinda pissed

Member

Re: Is it any wonder...

Guess i'm behind but why would penetratioh not be an issue?

BadAnonTechG
Premium Member
join:2006-03-27
Olean, NY

BadAnonTechG

Premium Member

Who will buy who?

Charter will use Verizon Wireless for the Wireless backup end. Soo. Which company will buy out which? Comcast seems poised to buy out a Wireless network eventually. At&t has DirecTv already. Sprint will role into T-Mobile or someone then...?

srtdodge05
Premium Member
join:2011-10-16
Ypsilanti, MI

srtdodge05

Premium Member

Re: Who will buy who?

said by BadAnonTechG:

Charter will use Verizon Wireless for the Wireless backup end. Soo. Which company will buy out which? Comcast seems poised to buy out a Wireless network eventually. At&t has DirecTv already. Sprint will role into T-Mobile or someone then...?

Maybe Verizon will buy Charter and then Comcast will Buy Verizon and also get Charter.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt to BadAnonTechG

Premium Member

to BadAnonTechG
said by BadAnonTechG:

Comcast seems poised to buy out a Wireless network eventually

Didn't Comcast suggest they were headed towards a similar Verizon backup'ed Wi-Fi centric "cellular" service in the same time frame?
could each be talking about a multi ISP "cable-fi/ celluar effort? similar to the cable-Wi-Fi everywhere efforts.

srtdodge05
Premium Member
join:2011-10-16
Ypsilanti, MI

srtdodge05

Premium Member

Re: Who will buy who?

For awhile if you ordered Verizon service from Comcast you got a discount. There is talk Comcast is going to offer Wifi phone service with Verizon backup.

Takuro
join:2016-10-17
Chapel Hill, NC

Takuro

Member

Impact to Short Term Tower Congestion and Long Term 5G Market Competition?

I'm just concerned about this whole MVNO approach. I believe it means more than just Charter using Verizon's towers to in turn install their own antennas -- I believe it means there's zero upfront investment in any hardware and that they hope to ride on Verizon's existing infrastructure.

I don't get it. Until this week, Verizon didn't even offer an unlimited data plan. How are they going to meet the added capacity to now also support Charter customers? Are they banking on the fact that by the time 5G is rolled out that there will be plenty of bandwidth for everybody? And if that is the case, won't carriers like Verizon who traditionally only serve mobile customers want to expand their scope to fixed wireless home internet? Wouldn't this put Verizon in Charter in direct competition? Maybe their long term strategy is to buy them out, which would create more of a monopoly in many markets.

Anon8002b
@rr.com

1 recommendation

Anon8002b

Anon

Re: Impact to Short Term Tower Congestion and Long Term 5G Market Competition?

Verizon doesn't own many towers. But charter doesn't need towers. They can put antennas on poles with their lines and creat their network that way.

Verizon has also offered an unlimited plan since summer.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

tshirt

Premium Member

Re: Impact to Short Term Tower Congestion and Long Term 5G Market Competition?

said by Anon8002b :

They can put antennas on poles with their lines and creat their network that way.

I agree
Strand mount and other wi-fi hotspot could eventually cover MOST of their needs with Verizon covering large areas early in the rollout, and shrinking to gap and high load coverage later on.
If Wi-Fi to cell (and back) hand-offs are well managed calbeco's needing their own cells unlikely for years and Verizon gets eyeballs/ears to fill their every growing capacity now that the cell only market is saturating.
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO

1 recommendation

rradina to Takuro

Member

to Takuro
Wireless customers in the US are at or extremely close to the saturation point. Other than IOT/cars growth areas, are there truly any new customers? If that's the case, if Charter's wireless ambitions manage to entice 1M customers, it's going to be taken from someone else. Other than moving customers between the four carriers, is this a zero sum game?

Anon6ecfc
@ri.net

1 recommendation

Anon6ecfc

Anon

The Win Points for Verizon and Charter

Verizon is ok with this because Charter (and Comcast) can help it lock in customers by bundling their service with home internet and tv and other services over a combined footprint that covers 70 percent of the united states, especially with the losses to T Mobile, this is a synergy that t mobile just doesn't have. Chart and Comcast likely have a deal where they need to reimburse Verizon for use of its network as it is used, not after they collect the fee for whatever data plan they sell the users, so likely they want to force people to their wifi hotspots, including the home router ones, so they don't have to pay Verizon as much. That is why Verizon isn't concerned so much about sharing with cablecos (for now).
rok1
join:2015-03-06
Dupont, WA

rok1

Member

Just what we need more towers

I live in an area where there are half a dozen smaller cell towers and they affect everything from OTA tv transmission to SiriusXM.. now we are going to have them all over the place?

I could have sworn there was some sort of FCC rule where one electronic device cannot interfere with anothers radio signals.. Everytime my SiriusXM goes out I look around and see one of those smaller cell towers that are only 150-200 feet off the ground, it never fails. 3 different vehicles all do the same thing.
ILikeTech
join:2015-03-09

ILikeTech

Member

Re: Just what we need more towers

your cell towers do not affect OTA transmission OR satellite radio.

all of these services operate in VERY specific frequency bands and HUGE fines can be incurred for violating their specific licensed spectrum.

pclover
join:2008-08-02
Santa Cruz, CA

pclover to rok1

Member

to rok1
If your OTA TV and SirusXM radio is going out from cell service than it shows bad engineered products provided the cell radios are not emitting spurious emissions and running within FCC regulations.

Products are supposed to reject out of band signals to prevent intermodulation and other issues.

Awhile ago T-Mobile and SirusXM were fighting it out when SirusXM filed a complaint that T-Mobile was causing them interference. FCC ultimately said they weren't
DarthIT
join:2015-08-12
United State

1 recommendation

DarthIT

Member

Backhaul

I imagine charter offering to provide additional backhaul in areas where it can. Essentially a traffic exchange...
Increased backhaul for Verizon and more customers.

Charter offers all your needs in one package. Win for them.

I see a win win honestly
Jazzemt
join:2009-02-12
USA

Jazzemt

Member

Re: Backhaul

Charter is already doing Verizon's backhaul in the areas that Charter covers and Verizon does not serve via wireline. I honestly see this is a move to make them more attractive to Verizon for a merger.
kinda pissed
join:2012-06-06
Newsoms, VA

kinda pissed

Member

towers on the edge of the footprint

It would be nice if they put antennas up around the edges so they could increase their footprint more then likely though the majority of people who will be able to benefit from this will be people who can already get a wired connection.