Spot on... this is helping them with retention believe it or not. And when 802.11u becomes more mainstream they will be involved in the cellular hand-off as well. Don't forget social data gathering as well.
On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 6:11 PM, ralph <ralphli...@bsrg.org> wrote: > I will tell you exactly what it is. I am very familiar: > > Cable Companies discovered that they could easily offer roaming WiFi to > their existing customers by utilizing their existing strand and 90 volt > power riding it to add access points. Not in the sense of full Metro WiFi > (like MuniWiFi) but more as hotspots. The first big adopter was > Cablevision, with a brand they called OptimumWiFi. They now have nearly > 100,000 APs in their markets. They use Belair APs, Cisco APs and possibly > may be testing Ruckus and others. > > Although they could be, these are usually not mesh systems, as many > MuniWiFi > systems had to be, because each AP can have its own ready-made backhaul. > Most broadcast on 5GHz as well as 2.4 GHz. This is because like us, they > discovered that 5 GHz was clean, and most new devices- especially phones > and > tablets, have 5GHz now. The speed on these is around 15x4 Mbps. > > Additionally, Comcast did the same thing, as did Time Warner, Cox and > BrightHouse. Comcast is very busy rolling it out inside homes and > businesses as well. It is done with a second SSID that does not impact a > customer's usage cap. > > These networks each broadcast their own SSIDS. They are OptimumWiFi, > Xfinitywifi, CoxWiFi, TWCWiFi and BrightHouse WiFi (I am not positive of > the actual SSID on the last two). The systems are available at no charge > to their customers who have the required service level at home. I'm sure > they are probably working on a pay per use model as well. > > CableLabs, worked with all these MSOs to agree on a consortium between them > to "share" networks. The companies I mentioned have connected their > authentication systems together to allow roaming between all the hotspots > operated by one other. This now gives the MSOs hundreds of thousands of > hotspots that their customers can use. Compare this to the few hotspots > AT&T > offers their customers- McDonalds and Home Depot (they lost Starbucks to > Google). > > Once an MSO integrates their network, they add a new SSID: CableWiFi. If > you > connect to that you see a captive portal that allows the user to select > their home carrier and away they go. They can roam all over the US with > their phone, tablet, laptop or whatever. Everything is as if they were > home- > including CALEA! In areas where the territories of two MSOs touch, they > often broadcast each other's SSIDs as well. For example in Long Island and > also parts of NJ, you will see OptimumWifi, xfinitywifi, and TWCWiFi all > with the same strength. That is because they are coming from the same > Cablevision AP. > > Now, you may remember back in 2007 when we WISPs were running around > worrying about Earthlink (and some cities) starting to deploy MuniWiFi . I > remember it well... posts that were like this: "the sky is falling, cities > are installing MuniWiFi. It is going to put us out of business" Back then I > said: Don't fight them, join them. Most of them offered the opportunity to > have your SSID on their system. Earthlink carried several other SSIDs. > Among > them, in some markets, DirectTV and Vonage. In our market, we worked > with > the Cities and BECAME THE ISP. They actually handed us an Ethernet cable > that had all the houses in town "connected" on the other end. We just added > a Mikrotik and made the whole town a hotspot. > > As these MSOs widen their footprints, prepare to see many more SSIDs. > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On > Behalf Of Mike Lyon > Sent: Friday, January 03, 2014 1:43 PM > To: WISPA General List > Subject: [WISPA] CableWIFI? > > Startting to see this SSID pop up around town. > > How is this conglomerate setting up it's APs? Are the likes of comcast and > such just adding add'l SSIDs to users gateways / cable modems or are they > actually deploying dedicated infrastructure? > > -Mike > _______________________________________________ > Wireless mailing list > Wireless@wispa.org > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > > _______________________________________________ > Wireless mailing list > Wireless@wispa.org > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless >
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