Even Verizon Doesn't Think LTE's a Real Competitor For Comcast To get their acquisition of Time Warner Cable approved, Comcast has been claiming that pretty much every company in existence technically competes with Comcast, therefore all that competition will organically keep Comcast honest. Even though Google Fiber only impacts a tiny, tiny fraction of Comcast's overall userbase, Comcast claims that's enough competition to keep the company on its very best behavior. Comcast has even gone so far as to claim Comcast-owned Hulu will keep Comcast honest. The company has also tried to argue that because LTE wireless is improving, it too is another example of competitive pressure facing the company (even though Comcast sells Verizon Wireless services). Amusingly, speaking with reporters recently, even Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead argued that this wasn't really true: quote: "They're trying to get deals approved, right, and I understand that... their focus is different than my focus right now, because I don't have any deals pending," Mead said, a reference to the fact that Comcast is looking for ways to justify the TWC buy. "LTE certainly can compete with broadband, but if you look at the physics and the engineering of it, we don't see LTE being as efficient as fiber coming into the home." Before moving to Verizon's wireless unit, Mead held executive roles in the company's landline business, responsible for traditional telephone service and high-speed internet to the home. "We know both sides of that pretty well," he continued. "So that may be a little bit of a stretch, and the economics are much different." By pretending that everybody competes with Comcast, Comcast hopes everybody ignores the company's growing stranglehold on the last-mile broadband market, a position of power that's only growing as companies like AT&T and Verizon By pretending that everybody competes with Comcast, Comcast hopes everybody ignores the company's growing stranglehold on the last-mile broadband market, a position of power that's only growing as companies like AT&T and Verizon back away from DSL users in markets they don't want to upgrade (something that's happening whether or not the merger goes through). Capped, pricey LTE service certainly isn't a real competitor for Comcast -- especially since they're in a marketing agreement with Verizon to help sell it as an added complementary service -- not a replacement.







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Most recommended from 26 comments



Zenit

The system is the solution

Premium Member

join:2012-05-07

Purcellville, VA 6 recommendations Zenit Premium Member Ah, Verizons master plan Its been pretty well known that Verizon's master plan under McAdam has been the following:



Freeze FIOS expansion unless forced by franchise

Freeze DSL expansion unless your in PA, blasted BFFR law!

Allow the copper plant to deteriorate, even in areas without FIOS. Maintenance costs way too much money (I don't mind this in areas overbuilt with fiber. But letting non-overbuilt areas fall apart, NO!)



And then sell back to the abandoned copper-only areas without cable 4G LTE at high prices. Whats that, the DSLAM broke? Here, have LTE. We never built out broadband to your semi-rural CO? Have LTE!



FIOS is only about 30-35% of the VZ service area as admitted by the VZ CTO (he said anywhere from 20% to 50% but the lower is more likely...)

Its nice to see that Verizon has a 2-faced show going on here. LTE is great for home internet! No its not it cant compete with cable! Yes it is, the money! No it isn't!



I hope somebody in a position of power at VZ will finally wake up and see that the McAdam/Shamo policies are going to totally wreck the company in the long term. Bring Seidenberg out of retirement or something - at least he had vision and came up from the wireline side of the house, working his way up to CEO.



Its not too late yet to recover from the impending infrastructure disaster VZ is inflicting on itself. A lot of the copper plant could be quickly redeemed by plopping down some VDSL2 and patching up the plant as a stopgap before they build out FIOS.

buzz_4_20

join:2003-09-20

Biddeford, ME 4 recommendations buzz_4_20 Member Holy Crap For once they are right.

Wireless is inferior to wired for home internet.