T-Mobile CEO Warns Cable Industry to Prepare for Competition

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T-Mobile CEO Warns Cable Industry to Prepare for Competition
By Aaron Pressman/ Tech/ T-Mobile/ Fortune/ fortune.com

"T-Mobile CEO John Legere on Thursday promised his company would debut its cable television competitor in 2019, not this year as originally planned.

“In 2019, we’ll take our first steps to take on another stupid, broken, arrogant industry—maybe the stupidest, brokenest, arrogantest industry of all: cable and satellite TV,” Legere wrote in a blog post on Thursday, with his usual aggressive rhetoric. But Legere offered no details about the upcoming service and did not explain why it had been delayed.

Still, he predicted great success for T-Mobile (tmus, +1.13%) as a disruptive new entrant into cable, which has already been suffering significant losses due to cord cutting.

The telecommunications company bought Denver startup Layer3 TV for $325 million one year ago and said it would use the acquisition to attack the cable market with a new service in 2018. But no service has been forthcoming yet....."

Richard

 

[Bucky]

With the deployment of 5G growing in 2019 it will be interesting to watch and see how the telecommunications industry evolves.

 

[bogey21]

Looks to me like traditional cable is slowly withering away. DirectTV may last longer for people like my Son who lives in a rural area and uses a Satellite Internet provider and DirectTV. For those who might be interested I find that his satellite Internet works fine, without any glitches and is IMO reasonably priced at about $50 per month...

George

 

[Phydeaux]

Now that title is downright laughable. Prepare for competition??? With the sheer number of people that have already cut cable, and the late comers in the process of cutting cable, I thought this story was about a decade old!

 

[zinger1457]

Looks to me like traditional cable is slowly withering away. DirectTV may last longer for people like my Son who lives in a rural area and uses a Satellite Internet provider and DirectTV. For those who might be interested I find that his satellite Internet works fine, without any glitches and is IMO reasonably priced at about $50 per month...

George

The problem with satellite internet providers like HughesNet is that they usually have a data limit that is very low, especially if you do any video streaming. HughesNet drops their speed from 25MPS to under 3MPS when you go over 20GB for that month. Most cable companies have a 1TB monthly data limit. I don't do a lot of video streaming but easily go over 20GB each month.

 

[plpgma]

My comment is that cable TV has been, still is, and will most likely always be a major pain in the butt -- but a pain that is necessary if one desires live TV, etc. I'm curious to see what exciting competition T-Mobile brings, but am not going to lose any sleep while waiting (nor will I sprain any muscles to switch if the competition is compelling).

 

[Talent312]

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a service other than cable
that brings us the unique combination of channels we like.
Even neighbors with kodi-boxes kept their cable box, too.
Dishes have issues for us, so it's a necessary evil.
.

 

[Steve Fatula]

Cordcutting will continue to grow as it has been, less people care about cable channels every day. We use antenna, Pluto.tv, and, philo, good enough for us, grand total $16 per month including DVR, skipping commercials, etc. I just coached a friend of ours to pay $0 per month as she gets enough channels without services like philo. There are many other things to do in life. Between philo, Pluto, antenna, and Amazon Prime, we could watch tv 12 hours a day and never run out of interesting stuff. But who would want to?

I am more interested in getting home internet one day over 5G or later. Satellite internet has problems and huge limitations for streaming with usage caps, but rural folks can also use microwave internet which is just as fast as many (but not all) other wired internet. Look for WISPs in your rural area if you are rural.

 

[Brett]

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a service other than cable
that brings us the unique combination of channels we like.
Even neighbors with kodi-boxes kept their cable box, too.
Dishes have issues for us, so it's a necessary evil.
.

I too would like to 'cut the cord' but the wired internet providers in my area (southeastern Virginia) offer competitive TV/internet packages compared to getting the internet from cell phone towers or satellites

 

[Bucky]

I too would like to 'cut the cord' but the wired internet providers in my area (southeastern Virginia) offer competitive TV/internet packages compared to getting the internet from cell phone towers or satellites

While cutting the cord sounds like a great concept it can be a royal pain n reality, sometimes! We tried it for three months and really weren’t impressed. Maybe with an Ethernet connection it is better but with wireless it is hit or miss at best. When something does go haywire, in most cases you are left wondering who to call. If my pic froze I was left trying to determine whom was at fault! Was it a blip in my internet or was it a problem with my Roku or possibly with PSVue/Sling/Tablo? At least with DISH I know who to call and who’s responsible. Is it less expensive, absolutely. Is it for everybody, probably not! I’m actually enjoying trouble free tv again since we went with DISH.

 

[paxsarah]

I’m much less interested in yet another competitor on the TV front, than making sure there’s actually competition in the high-speed internet market. This summer we moved to a house where there was a choice between fiber and cable internet, but this is the first time I’ve ever had more than one viable option.

 

[Phydeaux]

While cutting the cord sounds like a great concept it can be a royal pain n reality, sometimes! We tried it for three months and really weren’t impressed. Maybe with an Ethernet connection it is better but with wireless it is hit or miss at best. When something does go haywire, in most cases you are left wondering who to call. If my pic froze I was left trying to determine whom was at fault! Was it a blip in my internet or was it a problem with my Roku or possibly with PSVue/Sling/Tablo? At least with DISH I know who to call and who’s responsible. Is it less expensive, absolutely. Is it for everybody, probably not! I’m actually enjoying trouble free tv again since we went with DISH.

A good place to start is to ensure you have sufficient bandwidth and internet speed to support all internet use throughout your home, including streaming. What was your internet speed? You did measure it, correct?

If we have a hiccup, it's generally a brief blip in our internet. Roku is like a switch - it's ether on or it's off. Meaning, it either works perfectly, or not at all. Same for the SLING et al. We've been extremely pleased since cutting the cable, and now receive all TV streamed. No problems.

 

[Steve Fatula]

Wireless WiFI can definitely be spotty, depends how far way from your router, signal strength, interference, etc. 5gHZ typically works better if you can use that if in range of the router and the router supports it. Wired of course is always ideal.

No trouble here on 5gHZ WiFi either. Since we are rural, we only have 20mbps download, so, I simply use a QOS router so that playback devices are prioritized over downloads, etc.

 

[pedro47]

I also lived in southeastern Virginia (Tidewater / Hampton Roads area).
Cox’s Cable, Spretum, Direct Tv are asking cable subscribers to call these cable providers to demand that they carry our local channels CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX.

Warning us, that we will not be able to view the NFL football playoffs games, The Golden Globes, etc., etc.

All that means to me ; is that our cable bill is going up again.

Local taxes and other items are now 10% of the bill. What happen to free over the air televisions?

 

[Steve Fatula]

All that means to me ; is that our cable bill is going up again.

Local taxes and other items are now 10% of the bill. What happen to free over the air televisions?

Answer - nothing. It will remain free.

 

[Ken555]

While cutting the cord sounds like a great concept it can be a royal pain n reality, sometimes! We tried it for three months and really weren’t impressed. Maybe with an Ethernet connection it is better but with wireless it is hit or miss at best. When something does go haywire, in most cases you are left wondering who to call. If my pic froze I was left trying to determine whom was at fault! Was it a blip in my internet or was it a problem with my Roku or possibly with PSVue/Sling/Tablo? At least with DISH I know who to call and who’s responsible. Is it less expensive, absolutely. Is it for everybody, probably not! I’m actually enjoying trouble free tv again since we went with DISH.

You know the answer. Ethernet. When I rewired my home years ago from the spaghetti the builder installed everything improved, and of course I added Ethernet outlets everywhere I could and most especially by the TVs. “Convergence”, as it was called back then, was already a known fact and relying on WiFi for everything (especially in a WiFi congested location like my home) isn’t a good idea.


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[Ken555]

What happen to free over the air televisions?

I have an indoor antenna which works great. Cost $30. Monthly fee? Zero. No reason to be mad.


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[Phydeaux]

You know the answer. Ethernet. When I rewired my home years ago from the spaghetti the builder installed everything improved, and of course I added Ethernet outlets everywhere I could and most especially by the TVs. “Convergence”, as it was called back then, was already a known fact and relying on WiFi for everything (especially in a WiFi congested location like my home) isn’t a good idea.


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And when did you wire your home? Ethernet cables used only a few years ago are now outdated and cannot even handle GB speeds. Hope you installed Cat 6.

 

[Steve Fatula]

I would add, less trouble with antenna than most any other service as it remains working during storms, unlike for example satellite. Even works without power.

Regarding ethernet and gigabit networks, sure, one may (with old enough cable) "only" get 100 mbps, but for the most part, irrelevant for an average home. cat5e or later will support Gigabit.

 

[Ken555]

And when did you wire your home? Ethernet cables used only a few years ago are now outdated and cannot even handle GB speeds. Hope you installed Cat 6.

Actually, Cat 5e (the standard for many years, initially released in 1999) supports GB just fine. That’s a lot longer than just “a few years ago”.

I think I installed 6, but really don’t recall. If not 6, then 5e. FWIW, Cat 6 was much more expensive than 5e when it first became available and there was very limited application for it at that time. Even today there’s little reason to get 6 vs 5e, other than the fact that the prices have stabilized so that 6 is no longer as expensive as it once was. In certain situations there are other reasons to consider 6, as well.

In either case, the difference between 5e and 6 matters little for watching 4K or even better via Ethernet. From what I’ve read, 8K will need 80-100Mbps per stream (vs 20-25 for 4K), at which point having 6 is likely an advantage (especially if you have an inferior network switch and need to do multiple connections simultaneously).


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[bbodb1]

I’m much less interested in yet another competitor on the TV front, than making sure there’s actually competition in the high-speed internet market. This summer we moved to a house where there was a choice between fiber and cable internet, but this is the first time I’ve ever had more than one viable option.

What did you choose for internet and how has it worked out for you?

I'm curious because we just moved to fiber and thus far seem to be satisfied BUT I still think we should be getting more speed considering we pay $55 per month for about a 25 mbs download speed......

 

[bbodb1]

I...What happen to free over the air televisions?

It's where infomercials have migrated to for spawning.....(a season that never ends it seems)

 

[Brett]

I have an indoor antenna which works great. Cost $30. Monthly fee? Zero. No reason to be mad.


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over the air TV is free (but limited channels)
unfortunately I may have to buy a 'free TV' antenna to get ABC in my area
https://www.13newsnow.com/verizon

 

[pedro47]

I have one cable ready tv in my study; that I used an antenna. Great picture but sometimes it does loses it signal. I feel I need a stronger antenna or I need to place my antenna in a higher elevation or in a different location.

 

[Bucky]

A good place to start is to ensure you have sufficient bandwidth and internet speed to support all internet use throughout your home, including streaming. What was your internet speed? You did measure it, correct?

If we have a hiccup, it's generally a brief blip in our internet. Roku is like a switch - it's ether on or it's off. Meaning, it either works perfectly, or not at all. Same for the SLING et al. We've been extremely pleased since cutting the cable, and now receive all TV streamed. No problems.

Speed was not our problem. We get 70/6 pretty consistently. Some of the problems came from degrading Spectrum connectors that they eventually replaced. Don’t get me wrong I’m not knocking
cord cutting. Just saying it’s not perfect by any means but then again, nothing else is either. Roku is much worse than what I remember from years ago. Just last night I was getting over heating warnings on a 3800X Streaming Stick that is less than a year old and not encased in anything! I’ve tried the amazon stick and didn’t like it. Think I may try Apple TV for my next one. While our Tablo DVR worked pretty well, it or any of the other streaming providers DVRs paled in comparison to my DISH Hopper 3 which allows me to record up to 16 shows at one time. I know, overkill. I’m paying $27 more a month for DISH than I was for Streaming. Small price to pay for pretty trouble free viewing. Someday when the streaming providers refine their dvrs I may return to one of them but for now we’re happy.

You know the answer. Ethernet. When I rewired my home years ago from the spaghetti the builder installed everything improved, and of course I added Ethernet outlets everywhere I could and most especially by the TVs. “Convergence”, as it was called back then, was already a known fact and relying on WiFi for everything (especially in a WiFi congested location like my home) isn’t a good idea.

Absolutely. But at this stage I’m not able to do it and I’m not going to pay anyone else to do it just to watch tv.


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