Wireless IPTV opens up in-home opportunities

Part 2 of 2. Read Part 1 here.

Telecom service providers in the United States are just beginning to explore using WiFi to deliver their IPTV services, but the service is attractive for more reasons than just a wire-free home. WiFi is one of several standards, alongside ZigBee and Z-Wave, competing to be the de facto technology for the home network. If WiFi does take hold as a way to deliver digital TV services, it could become a strategic tool for telcos to stake their claim in other areas of the home as well.

Beamformed WiFi vendor Ruckus Wireless is in discussions with operators across the globe to offer its HomeSpot network as a means of extending their public WiFi footprints potentially creating an enormous wide-area hotspot network without new construction. For example, a cable company or telco could offer its customers a free or discounted broadband connection and WiFi router in their home. In exchange, the service provider would broadcast out its own SSID from that WiFi router, using it as a public hotspot. The two wireless networks remain separate, giving the customer privacy while allowing the carrier to build a hotspot footprint of thousands of new access points.

“They can do that quickly and cost effectively because they already have a cable modem and cable services and broadband services going into subscribers everywhere,” said Ruckus Wireless vice president of marketing David Callisch. “So they are trying to leverage WiFi to get more stickiness to the subscriber and to economically extend their network without having to do any huge capital expenditures -- i.e., pulling fiber.”

Operators could do the same with small or medium-sized businesses getting a public hotspot in exchange for a discount on the business’s broadband service. This would be especially relevant in a multiple storefront setting like a mall, Callisch said, and this business model is becoming prevalent today. “Now anyone who picks up a signal can attach to that, and if they are a subscriber, they can get services over that network,” he said. “Even if they aren’t, they can just sign up.”

AT&T has been the most aggressive carrier with WiFi both in the home and in public. As a Ruckus customer, it is trialing WiFi to distribute its U-Verse IPTV service, although it hasn’t yet explored the possibility of using that service to expand its footprint in the home. Consolidated Communications was the latest IPTV provider to use Ruckus Wireless’ WiFi technology for its TV distribution. J.J. Hollie, product manager for Consolidated’s Digital Video Services, said the WiFi infrastructure used for video traverses a separate signal that comes direct from Consolidated. The operator is offering the upgrade to WiFi IPTV and the Ruckus equipment free of charge to its consumers, but Jeff Heynen, senior research analyst at Infonetics, said this will not likely be the model to win out.

“Video notwithstanding, the Ruckus device just provides more bandwidth than your typical wireless router,” Heynen said. “[Telcos] can offer it and say this is a premium wireless offering within your home. You are going to get throughput that your neighbors aren’t going to. Consumers will pay a premium for that.”

More opportunities lie in higher speed hotspots where carriers can really start to deliver some IP-based video content, Callisch said, adding that this is already occurring in Hong Kong. Heynen said that operators could also easily add a broadband video component to their wireless IPTV service, much like the cable companies and now even telcos are doing with TV Everywhere. Considering that nearly everything has an Ethernet port on the back of it, Callisch said that carriers could also one day provide anything from closing the drapes to turning on the lights to heating systems and appliances.

“We’ve found that there are a lot of carriers with a renewed interest in WiFi because it’s so economical and pervasive,” Callisch said. “The thing that is overwhelming for carriers is that there are so many WiFi-enabled devices, it has won the end-point battle. There are so many devices with WiFi built-in that they have to have a strategy.”