FCC pushes #unlockthebox campaign to fix cable TV

Cable TV has many issues that frustrate its customers — channel bundles, poor customer service, high prices and more — but so many of them track back directly to its antiquated and troublesome set-top boxes. As it has for many years, the FCC is again pushing for changes to the traditional model, and Chairman Tom Wheeler laid out the points for his plan (PDF), along with an op-ed on Re/code, earlier today. We laid out the issues and what the FCC is trying to do earlier, but what’s clear now is that after years of pushing AllVid with little to show for it, the agency is trying a new tack.

99% of pay-TV subscribers are chained to their set-top boxes because cable and satellite operators have locked up the market. #UnlockTheBox

— The FCC (@FCC) January 27, 2016

It has a hashtag “#unlockthebox” and is focusing on the $20 billion per year consumers spend to lease cable boxes that no one really likes. In short, it’s obviously learned from the John Oliver effect on net neutrality, and is trying to recreate that when it comes to cable TV. As strategies, it’s one I can get behind, and the movement could actually benefit everyone.

The only real alternative to a cable DVR (while maintaining cable) is a TiVo, and I don’t think anyone believes that product has developed as quickly as other set-top boxes (Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV) over the last few years. From the cable side I’ve tried Comcast’s X1 platform, which has some nice elements but is still terribly slow, and features a need to reboot itself every single night. At this point, any competition would be welcome, and might be enough to keep customers from ditching pay-TV altogether.

Time Warner Cable already dipped its toe in by offering a Roku box and service to subscribers, but that’s just a start. Cable TV should be available as an app on the Xbox One and PS4 right next to PlayStation Vue and Sling TV, but it isn’t. That would be a great option to have as opposed to Comcast simply pushing simple games to already overburdened TV boxes, and if these changes are made, it could happen.

The pay-TV business is in a strange place right now as cord-cutters and cord-nevers grow in number. Wheeler noted that in 2007 the FCC opened up wireless networks to non-carrier-provided devices, and things exploded. Can the same happen for TV? We deserve to find out, and if the FCC can keep up the pressure on gatekeeper TV companies that have been slow-reacting over the last decade, maybe we’ll actually find out. The commission will vote on this notice during its meeting on February 18th at 1PM ET — see you then.

[Image credit: Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Comcast]

Source: Re/code, FCC NPRM (PDF)

Starry’s CEO on building a new type of wireless ISP

After making a noble attempt at bringing wireless television signals to the internet (and failing), Chet Kanojia is now trying to offer broadband internet wirelessly. How poetic. His new company, which launched this morning, is called Starry. It’s using high-frequency millimeter wave technology to deliver gigabit speeds to homes wirelessly. And best of all, there won’t be any bandwidth caps. We sat down briefly with Kanojia to discuss his latest attempt at revitalizing a stale industry.

What inspired you to go down this route? Nobody has used millimeter wave technology in this way.

Purely market conditions is probably a good way to describe it right now. If you draw the curve out and say, okay X amount of bandwidth is necessary now … either you can develop systems that are super spectrally efficient, and try to go for like 100 Mbps … or you can say, let’s get higher in frequency where you can get access to a ton more bandwidth.

You have other challenges, but spectral efficiency is just an incredibly difficult game to play. It comes down to innovating in base bands and radio, which is a much longer cycle. More importantly, you have no consumer industry support, compared to using existing consumer baseband technology and apply smart RF on different bands. That gives you a ton of agility on different strategies.

A lot of companies in the past have tried to do a different push from a radio technology perspective. Ultimately you’re seeing a lot of effort in millimeter wave today. The FCC is pushing it for 5G. Cellular guys have been looking at it from a 5G perspective. … A month ago higher level spectrum was opened up.

So you were ready for it?

We’ve been tracking it, we’re not geniuses. We’re good at looking at the set of things that are coming together both from a radio technology perspective and other modulation improvements. The piece we’re really adding is saying, how do we combine this into a front-end technology.

Two years ago we were starting to noodle where things were going. In the Aereo days we understood that at some point, the access network is going to be a choke point, either by technology or by politics.

It’s interesting that you’re aiming for unlimited bandwidth. That’s something the wireless carriers offered when mobile broadband started happening, but ultimately couldn’t deliver. What makes you think you’ll be able to do it?

Again, that’s the spectral efficiency issue. In all fairness, wholesale bandwidth isn’t necessarily that large of a problem. [Carriers] essentially monetize non-wholesale — really they plant costs by putting caps in. It’s an opportunity cost question. If I start giving you unlimited bandwidth right now, and if I need to build out my network better, where’s the money going to come from?

We’re playing in an area where the transport cost is largely de minimis, because we control both ends of the equation from a technology perspective. It makes a lot of sense to take that approach.

Will Starry be compatible with multiple routers? Or is the idea you’ll have to use the Starry Station?

Ideally ours, but we’re not going to be a company that’s going to restrict anyone from doing anything. [The company later told me it’ll give Starry Station and Point units to every subscriber.]

In terms of the range, how does Starry compare to a cellular base station? [Starry says their Beam stations can reach between 1 and 2 kilometers (0.6 to 1.2 miles).]

Cellular base stations tend to be much larger. Although most LTE stations these days are getting built out in a couple of kilometer ranges, largely from a capacity issue perspective. It depends on the market conditions, if they’re in a semi-suburban or rural environment, cellular will reach miles.

Is Starry’s network affected by walls, foliage and other obstructions?

Yes, it won’t go through walls. In fact, it’s very optical in its nature. It uses walls almost as specular surfaces, so [signals] bounce and almost create a multi-path, which helps with total capacity.

It looks like your window has to be slightly open to install Beam Point. Will that change?

It’s kind of beta-ish right now. There will be a two-part solution that you can mount outside and bring in a coaxial cable.

How does weather affect reception? Will Starry equipment have issues with snow like satellite dishes?

There’s actually a heater built into [Starry Point]. It puts about 25 watts out.

So how will rain affect things?

What will happen is the modulation these days is so sophisticated, it will actually downgrade the connection … but the flip is, since you’re using millimeter wave the channels are much much larger. So you don’t care about spectral efficiency as much since your total throughput is still a function of the bandwidth that you get.

Will there ever be support for attaching something to a traditional outdoor TV antenna?

[Laughs.] No. But at the end of the day look, a lot of UHF frequencies will get harvested for cellular connections. As they should be.