Cable companies have had an increasing interest in tapping new market opportunities, as consumption of voice and data sees unprecedented growth. For most cable providers, going from triple play to multi-play is the logical move on customer demand, so the MVNO route naturally seems the next step.
New needs and use patterns on subscribers’ end make the integration of home and mobile services anytime and anywhere necessary. But as cable operators opt to provide WiFi hotspots to their customers, they also need to offer mobility options if they want to turn them into dependable subscribers.
That’s why it goes without saying that rolling out small, private WiFi networks is not enough for most cable operators. If they want to stay in the competition and provide a mix of media services, voice, and data, they need access to the mobile network capabilities by associating with an MNO.
Partnering not only between a cable company and a mobile network operator, but also between cable providers, is becoming more and more common. On their side, cable companies rally up to ensure they secure themselves a share of the market.
Major players on the US cable providers market, for example, part of the CableWiFi alliance, were estimating the deployment, early 2015, of as many as 10 million new WiFi hotspots around the country, in both homes and businesses. Dual-SSID access points in subscribers’ homes allow the provision of a separate signal for outsiders, who can use that home hotspot without slowing down the network or being granted access to the subscriber’ home network. All the members of the CableWiFi alliance allow their subscribers to use each others hotspots, so, between the five, this could act as a self-reliant WIFI network that uses cellular networks to fill in the ‘gaps’.
Major benefits are evident; cable operators will acquire more customers for their new offerings, while subscribers will gain from getting all their services in one place with reduced subscription costs. But the success of this model still depends highly on cable companies getting to partner with MNOs, who have the necessary network resources to make this model work.
As for mobile network operators, more connected subscribers equals more revenue, which for now may be more to work with than nothing.