(01-18-2021 01:06 AM)Todor Wrote:  

(01-17-2021 11:52 AM)orangefan Wrote:  

(01-15-2021 02:50 PM)Todor Wrote:  Well, there is satellite internet. Dish owns it as well. Millions use it.

True, but I don't view traditional satellite based internet as anything but a second best solution where no better option is available. It tends to be expensive and has significant latency issues. The latency issues, for instance, could make it potentially unusable for gaming or a Zoom meeting, certainly one with more than two participants.

It appears that Elon Musk's StarNET initiative will reduce latency problems because it will be using satellites that are substantially closer to earth than existing satellite services. This actually represents yet another threat to traditional satellite providers, since it will be targeting the same group of rural customers that have been an important part of their customer base.

Oh, I know all about satellite internet:/ Fortunately, I am not using it currently. About 3 miles away from my old home, people were right on the fringe and could get a fixed wireless signal for internet. We thought they were really living in civilization lol.

I know people working in the rural telecom industry, and I used to work in wireless some years ago. I like to follow all of the oddball companies, and some of the unique situations/solutions out there. Compared to any metro area or even decent sized town, its really the wild west out there in some locations.

As you might have picked up on, I'm a big fan of Dish and am very anxious for their 5g network build out. I'm haven't heard a word about it, but I'm thinking Dish will have deals with some of these fixed wireless operators in a really strange way--not touching their internet customers, but for facilities and infrastructure in isolated areas mainly for providing normal voice/data service in order to help boost rural build out requirements. Even though they plan to offer a similar service most places, the existing fixed wireless customers are likely to stay as is for now.

Not sure how propagation will be with the spectrum they own, but hopefully they will cover a lot of att rural customers who have 0 other options right now. I'd love to see att take a hit for all the neglect they've made their captive customers suffer with. I don't even want them to be able to keep their rural Direct customers.

I think eventually Dish will merge with T-Mobile. It seems natural, it's amazing how T-Vision already has a better OTT than Sling at this rate. If Dish acquires DirecTV, then combining with T-Mobile makes a lot of sense. Both companies haven't acquired a production company yet. But I would keep an eye out for them merging to combat Comcast and AT&T.

I hope not. I want more competition.

(01-18-2021 01:44 AM)Todor Wrote:  I hope not. I want more competition.

Ideally that would be nice. But we've been moving towards conglomerates since the early 90's from what I remember (born in '85). Verizon buying Yahoo! & AOL was really bad idea on their part and they've lost a lot of market share to AT&T and T-Mobile. I remember when Verizon was the peak of cell service back in the late 00's.

I watched the formation of the wireless industry from the viewpoint of one small local phone company who put up a tower next to their office building. This was in the analog days. They sold a local service only, mostly to a few local companies for their delivery people, trades people who were out on job sites, etc.

Soon, a regional, and then state consortium of companies agreed to let each others subscribers roam on the others networks. Later, Alltel went around the country buying all of these groups up for really high prices. At its peak Alltel had the largest coverage of any wireless company in square miles. It was the first company covering vast swaths of the country. Then Alltel was bought out by Verizon. They were both CDMA. Previous to that, Verizon coverage was pretty skimpy. Just big cities and highways--if you remember old T mobile maps, that's what I mean. After buying Alltel, Verizon got really big. Most of their "great network and coverage" was what they purchased from Alltel.

Anyone else remember these days?

(01-18-2021 01:44 AM)Todor Wrote:  I hope not. I want more competition.

I miss my cable Bill being $40. Now it’s like $70 from a different company.

https://arstechnica.com/information-tech...continues/

Article says att average arpu for their premium tv services is almost $140 per month.

Also says, bids for DirectTV are around $15 billion. Att paid about $50 billion for it.

Att lost 3 million tv customers in 2020 alone. 16 million tv customers now, down from 25 in 2017.

Wow is this company flailing. Lost over $5 billion in 2020.

(01-16-2021 01:28 AM)Realignment Wrote:  

(01-15-2021 06:29 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(01-15-2021 01:48 PM)Todor Wrote:  

(01-15-2021 12:37 PM)Realignment Wrote:  

(01-15-2021 07:24 AM)solohawks Wrote:  I agree. AT&T is going to take a bath on Sunday Ticketless DirectTV

They just need to cut their losses. Buying Time Warner was a good addition to their portfolio but the DIRECTV buy was a total disaster considering what they are doing now. AT&T TV Now is now merged with AT&T TV, I'm sure U-verse TV is next to merge. Make everything streamlined. AT&T Wireless, AT&T TV & AT&T Fiber (or AT&T Internet).

HBO Max will be a big winner for them in 2021 considering all the movies they are putting out this year and HBO still produces quality programming, they also got their first HBO Max original hit in the Flight Attendant (I highly recommend it). But the DIRECTV blunder definitely got people fired.

Dish just needs to come in with a solid offer and reap the rewards from it. Like I said, 90% of bars & restaurants in the United States use DIRECTV for their TV's. It's still a solid business for commercial/business use.

Why is that? Anyone know? Does cable charge more for "commercial use" or something? Or just Direct just target them hard with discounts, and if so, why?

My guess would be sports.

Businesses are charged more for using DIRECTV for their bars & restaurants, they are not charged single consumer prices. Like when a Bar shows a UFC fight for example on PPV, and your bar holds 200 patrons then they charges you the $69.99 each person that can fit into your bar. That's why they usually charge at the door to make the money back. They figure $20 at the door, then your party eats and drinks that's usually around $300 and they make money. Fights over, most people stay and drink more. It's profitable for sure.

There’s this, but there’s an even more important factor week-to-week: DIRECTV has exclusivity for NFL Sunday Ticket (which is often the biggest draw for sports bars out of anything). AT&T is in such a Catch-22 with the cost of the NFL Sunday Ticket rights - it’s really expensive for them to keep exclusivity that is a natural to move to streaming in the long-term, yet it’s also *the* package that drives their commercial establishment business.