Cable Operators Want to Own Local Wifi

I attended the Cable Show yesterday and walked away disappointed about cellular partnerships and encouraged about Wifi. My takeaways and questions were the following:

1. Cable companies want to own local Wifi networks advertising visibility
2. Rolling out regional free / subsidized Wifi to small businesses (SMBs) is the #1 priority
3. Most operators are not interested in cellular voice at the home (except Cox)
4. Femtocells are not in the plans and not sure how they will handle 5-10M devices on their network
5. Cox is the only cable operator controlling its own destiny in the cellular buying spectrum
6. What happens if Sprint gets gobbled up and they are all partnered with the same cellular operator? 
7. They think controlling the DVR is the #1 consumer pain and I don't agree
8. No discussion of handset partnerships
9. Very vague on the branding / reselling aspects of using Sprint 3G / Clearwire 4G
10. Smartphone / femtocell penetration must be larger for voice to matter in the home

The panel consisted of the following people: 

• Cathy Avgiris (Comcast Cable Communications)
• John Bickham (Cablevision Systems Corporation)
• Stephen Bye (Cox Communications, Inc.)
• Frank Miller (BendBroadband)
• Mike Roudi (Time Warner Cable)

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