Also today, UK tourism office tempts conference centers to beef up broadband to attract international events, Dish segues into the apartment biz, Three UK switches on FWA, KCOM's sale is finally finalized and Nitro Circus gets its own OTT.
Operators have a clue into subscribers that are about to cut the pay-TV cord, a recent OpenVault study suggests. The Internet data usage difference between cord cutters and average subscribers grew 14% six months before subs switched to broadband-only packages, then rose 20% in the month prior and 30% in the month the video cord was cut, according to OpenVault's analysis of thousands of customers during the first half of 2019. In the following three months, the difference between broadband-only and average subscriber Internet data usage rose to about 70%, the data found. Internet-only households had average bandwidth consumption of 390.42 Gigabytes in the Q2 versus 201.89 GB for bundled subscribers in the same period, the OpenVault Broadband Industry report showed. That is a whopping difference of 85%.
The UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) opened a competition for conference centers to apply for funding to improve their broadband infrastructure. The goal? To host more international confabs in the UK as part of a bigger goal to help boost the £32 billion ($38.83 billion) business events sector. Conference centers can compete for £250,000 (US $303,431) in broadband enhancements like full-fiber, the ability to provide more interactive content (via symmetric service) and live streamed events to global audiences (low latency). The competition is open to conference facilities -- including hotels and standalone centers -- where applicants bid or plan to bid for events which draw delegates from foreign countries. Other criteria: They must accommodate at least 400 delegates, have hosted more than one international event in the last year where a third of attendees were from other countries or be able to demonstrate plans to do so in the coming year. DCMS said its gigabit voucher scheme, available through the Building Digital UK plan, has boosted 60-plus hotels' broadband capacity. Contest details here.
A High-Rise Opportunity
Dish hopes to build on its success in markets like hotels with its fiber-based push into apartments.
Dish Network is targeting MDUs -- specifically apartments -- with a property-wide, bulk Internet and managed WiFi service for building owners and individual residents, reported Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner today. Dubbed Dish Fiber, the offering typically provides Internet connectivity based on a leased-fiber connection, managed WiFi and bulk IPTV tiers that subscribers can choose to upgrade to larger, IP-delivered pay-TV bundles. While apartments are a new focus, Dish has successfully sold similar services to hospitality, campus housing, hospitals and similar businesses. (Find out more, including where video fits: Dish Fiber Leads With Managed WiFi .)
Three UK turned on its residential 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) service in select areas of London. The operator is pitching it as a replacement to increasingly antiquated and unwanted landlines, and plans to make it available in 25 UK towns and cities by year-end.
MEIF6, a subsidiary of Australian private equity firm Macquarie, finalized its acquisition of northern-UK operator KCOM. The final price, after a somewhat tumultuous bidding period, was £627 million (about $760 million). (See BBWN Bites: Mega IoT Security Breach, KCOM Jilted.)
Nitro Circus, known for its action-packed sports -- like racing with BMX, inline and "contraptions" -- will launch its own streaming video service, "Epic Makes Misses & Mayhem." In partnership with Unreel.me, which works with several OTT services to monetize and expand them, Nitro Circus' offering will be available on Xumo, iOS, Android, Apple TV and Roku, wrote Startup News.
Here's where you can find episode links for 'The Divide,' Light Reading's podcast series featuring conversations with broadband providers and policymakers working to close the digital divide.
Charter has sparked RDOF work in all 24 states where it won bids. The cable op booked about $19 million in RDOF revenues in Q1, and expects to have about $9 million per month come in over the next ten years.
As we have for the past two years, Light Reading will stage the Cable Next-Gen Technologies & Strategies conference as a free digital event over two half-days in mid-March.
Launch of 2-Gig and 5-Gig FTTP tiers in 70-plus markets puts more pressure on cable ops to enhance their existing DOCSIS 3.1 network or accelerate their upgrade activity centered on the new DOCSIS 4.0 specs.
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