TWC Wi-Fi business remains the cable giant’s wireless broadband offering of choice, and notes long-running competition has made it better
ORLANDO, Florida – The cable industry’s continued struggles with the cellular market was highlighted by comments this week from Mike Roudi, SVP and GM for broadband services at Time Warner Cable during the Oracle Industry Connect event, which indicated the company would remain focused on Wi-Fi for its wireless broadband plans and was not looking to acquire a cellular operator.
TWC, which is in the process of merging operations with fellow cable providers Charter Networks and Bright House Networks, currently offers its cable-based broadband customers access to hundreds of thousands of Wi-Fi access points for so-called nomadic Internet services. Roudi said this offering has allowed TWC to expand its relationship with customers beyond their front door.
“Wi-Fi is the perfect extension of our network,” Roudi told session moderator Rajeev Chand, managing director and head of research at Rutberg & Co.
In terms of furthering that relationship to a true mobile environment, Roudi said the company has tried at various points for just such an arrangement, but has yet to find a business model that works for its operations.
“Wireless is a really important service and an enigma to the cable industry,” Roudi said. “We are not in it, but know it’s big.”
Roudi noted when he first came to TWC, the company immediately picked up spectrum resources in the Federal Communications Commission’s AWS-1 auction in 2006, turned those over into a short-lived partnership with Sprint via the Pivot venture, which in turn led to a dalliance with Clearwire and then the eventual selling of those spectrum assets for a healthy profit. That sale to Verizon Wireless, which closed in 2012, included the option to tap the carrier’s mobile network to launch service as a mobile virtual network operator, which TWC has yet to move on.
Instead, Roudi said “Wi-Fi has really happened,” which has allowed TWC to play in the wireless broadband space.
“One of my most positive things at TWC as building a Wi-Fi network from scratch,” Roudi said. “It’s created options for us. … Data consumption is much more nomadic now and happens in bursts when you are stationary, which is perfect for Wi-Fi.”
Roudi linked that comment to the notion consumers should perhaps not have access to Internet services when in a highly mobile environment like driving a car, something cellular broadband connectivity is increasingly looked at in providing.
As Roudi mentioned, TWC has not totally turned a blind eye towards cellular connectivity, noting the main limitation to Wi-Fi is that it’s not ubiquitous. When asked to comment on a Wi-Fi-first service like Google’s Fi, Roudi said such a platform could work over time. As for a deeper dive into the cellular market, Roudi said TWC was not looking at getting back into the space via an acquisition.
In terms of broadband competition, Roudi downplayed Google’s Fiber program, noting TWC has been competing for years against the likes of Verizon Communications FiOS and AT&T’s U-verse products. This has led TWC to look at innovation in its own network, including the launch of its Max product and work around the DOCSIS 3.1 standard.
In terms of marketing impact of rivals touting gigabit speeds, Roudi said with few if any applications, services or even equipment today able to take advantage of such speeds, TWC felt it remains competitive today with its service offerings that top out at around 300 megabits per second. He also added that unlike some of the new gigabit players, TWC’s move with DOCSIS 3.1 will be pushed to all of its current customers as opposed to be limited to select neighborhoods.
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