There has been an Article or two on CableTechs in the past few weeks surrounding innovation, earnings and direction. This doesn't come without some controversy, some out of the box thinking and some foresight. Other solutions by competitive providers are going to cause issues however. This is our cross to bare- this is ours to overcome. And we will. As we always do. So what is it?

LTE!

Verizons LTE is their answer to their financially stunted FTTH roll out. Sure Fiber to the home is sexy. No one can deny that FTTH is an ultimate goal and end state of all of our services. The closer we move to streaming, cloud based entertainment the more bandwidth we will need to feed it. However, FTTH and its roll out are costly. More costly then the pricing the average customer is willing to pay. ( illustrated by Verizons FTTH upside down ledger) Verizon realized this a bit too late and are looking for an alternative, a cheaper alternative to get their new services to the subscriber. Verizon is banking on LTE to transport their video offerings wirelessly. They have put the brakes on FTTH roll outs and are now focusing on a wireless alternative. Wireless is the way to go, wireless gets those Rural customers into the fold and competes with Sattelite for Video and Dialup ( ouch!) for Broadband. 

Now thats innovation on Verizons part. Kudos to them! And why would we in the cable industry begrudge innovation? We wouldnt! Innovation breeds competition which breeds more innovation which breeds more competition. Now, this doesnt always lead to lower prices as some would hope. We have seen that with overbuilt competitive rich areas.  But it does give birth to some pretty neat products and services. 

So how does Verizon LTE bite Cable in the ass? We arent loosing our Rural subs.. we do not really have any? Its a product geared towards a subscriber that  is looking for a more light weight alternative. Bandwidth wise, content wise, the casual farmer! ( Did I just coin a phrase?) So how does this technology affect us at all?