Verizon's HomeFusion LTE service could be a financial win
Summary: Verizon's HomeFusion LTE service opens up new markets for the telecom giant and can deliver some nice financial gains.
Verizon's move to launch its HomeFusion Broadband Service, which brings LTE into homes as a wired replacement, creates a bevy of interesting possibilities.
CNET's Jessica Dolcourt noted that Verizon's LTE-powered service will launch nationwide on Thursday. The idea is simple: Use LTE to link up a bevy of home devices to the Internet. In the long run, Verizon's service could be a wired replacement.
Dolcourt wrote:
Verizon's HomeFusion LTE will zip into homes through professionally-installed antennae receivers affixed on the outside of the house (this will cost you $199.99), then transmit signal to a Wi-Fi router inside the house. Using Wi-Fi, customers can connect up to 20 devices. Customers should expect downlink speeds of between 5Mbps and 12Mbps and uplink speeds ranging from 2Mbps to 5Mbps.
The rates will range from $60 a month for 10GB of data to $120 a month for 30GB. Verizon sees HomeFusion as a residential broadband alternative.
The moving parts of Verizon's HomeFusion effort are worth noting. Consider:
- Verizon's service fills in gaps for its wired territories. In some cases, HomeFusion could compete with Verizon's own FiOS fiber optic service. Verizon, however, has weighed the cannibalization effects and sees a bigger payoff ahead.
- That payoff is likely an easier route to compete with cable rivals such as Comcast and Cablevision. Verizon's LTE service will be cheaper to install and put it squarely in markets it doesn't have now.
- Verizon's broadband strategy can reach into more locales and ultimately increase the revenue pie for the company.
- The telecom giant will also have better margins since hooking up an LTE receiver to the home is cheaper than running fiber optic cables.
- Verizon can use the HomeFusion service to differentiate itself from rival carriers and land more revenue producing customers.
Add it up and HomeFusion is an experiment worth taking. The risks to Verizon are minimal and the financial gains could be substantial.
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Talkback
This isn't an alternative
Why would I pay around $120 for only 30GB? Why would I swap ADSL or cable for the vagaries and crowding of a mobile LTE connection? This seems an expensive solution only for those poor people who are unable to get cable or DSL, but somehow can get mobile phone reception and LTE at that. Seems a somewhat small demographic.
There are lots of rural areas that have LTE but no other DSL/cable options
A rural telco is unlikely to bring a high speed line into your premises, but for someone like Verizon who helps fund the deployment and signs a long term lease on the facilities to their cell site, the rural telco will do it.
There are lots of rural areas that have LTE but no other DSL/cable options
I'm still waiting for FiOS
Are they kidding?
FAIL!
I just uploaded 165gb last month to a cloud storage provider. How is a plan like this of any use?
April Fools?
This move actually angers me as a VZW customer
I run speed tests against the connection almost every day, and I'm lucky to get [b]one[/b] megabit per second on a consistent basis. That's atrocious. Factor in that I'm usually testing from my work office 3 blocks from Times Square in Manhattan!
Any time I question Verizon their first response is "Well are you indoors?" Of [i]course[/i] I'm indoors! Most of the time, most of us are! I'm supposed to buy into the idea that being 3 feet from a large window on the 35th floor of a building in midtown NYC is too much for their signal strength to penetrate?
Verizon is constantly complaining that their network capacity cannot accommodate all of their traffic. They use this argument to both increase rates and strong arm the FCC into selling them more bandwidth. How do they reconcile that argument with the idea of potentially [i]doubling[/i] their total traffic (assuming all VZW customers also choose to install this service--yes, I realize that is highly unlikely)?
To top it off, why would I even [i]consider[/i] this service? My cable connection through Time Warner is unlimited, and with the overall cable package I have, costs nowhere near what Verizon is expecting here (and isn't subject to signal loss on an overly cloudy day). On top of that, I have a grandfathered unlimited data contract on my phone. For a total of $60/month (the $30 I already pay plus the $30 hotspot) I can have unlimited "4G" (I use the term "4G" lightly). Sure, I get that it would be good for those in rural areas who cannot otherwise purchase broadband, but let's be honest, that's not the specific group Verizon is looking to entice.
I'm just about out of patience with Verizon. If I didn't have this grandfathered data contract I'd drop them in a heartbeat. The service is nowhere near what they claim it to be for me, and now they're poised to make it even worse.
Um, think about it for a minute
As for your other problems, I will only say that it is well known that RF signals have difficulty penetrating buildings--even more so if you have newer energy efficient windows. Likewise, being on the 35th floor means you are picking up interfering signals from a large area. But again, I am just speculating.
I'm sure you have legitimate issues, but you wrapped them in a lot of irrational ranting!
PS: Ever stop to think that perhaps more BW is needed in Manhattan?
Are they kidding?
Great Alternative IF it Were Unlimited Data
I would not pay for this service. Most rural people don't have the ability to even receive 4G LTE signals. 4G LTE Internet has such high latency as it is, that it would never replace a wired connection in my house. At best, tethering a 4G LTE signal from my phone to my home devices might work in a pinch when my wired Internet is down, but as an alterrnative to wired? Forget it. Now I know what lipstick on a pig means.
Metering...
I agree with the scale and metering in some isntances of mobile connections, where I"m traveling and expect some limits to my connectivity, but at home, please! I can get 30x5 wideband for $45/month. No data caps. This is available further out than LTE in my city (Cincinnati)... Don't they realize that can disrupt Comcast and TWC and DESTROY other telcos DSL services with this service, if they include some backhaul investment, in markets where they don't have a wireline play? This could be huge, but as usual, innovation is hampered by greed and lack of product management experience... Even if they just built a better metering curve.. Like $30/month for 60GB, $60/month for 120GB... $100/month for "unlimited" - Those are the kind of palatable prices that would give them the critical mass needed to deliver the service and make money (or just continue letting local telcos and big cable enjoy the home market).