"operator" articles

Throughout 2020, the United States’ broadband coverage gap was recognized as a major issue impacting Americans’ safety, quality of life, and ability to participate in work and schooling. According to Parks Associates estimates: ·       22% of US households, or roughly 27M households, lack a fixed home internet subscription; ·       10% of US households, or almost 13M households, are mobile-only –...

As of 2020, consumers have an average of around 12 connected devices in their homes. This is up from an average of around 8 devices back in 2015 – so a growth of around 4 devices in the past five years. In the next five years we expect this growth in adoption to really accelerate and by the year 2025, we estimate consumers will own an average of 20 internet-connected devices. This growth will come from a growing adoption of all types of devices including connected health products,...

One of the most exciting announcements during the Apple Event today centered around the introduction of eSIM technology into the new iPhone XS and XS Max. eSIMs act as a replacement for a traditional physical SIM card - they save internal space, improve water resistance, and allow users to configure their phone's network connection without having to request, wait for, and then physically insert a SIM card. In 2016 and 2017, eSIMS began gaining traction in the consumer market with...

AT&T has ambitions on transforming from a wireless and broadband provider to a “modern media company” and recently made a number of acquisitions towards this objective: The $84 billion buy of Time Warner gives them a wide array of content and strong portfolio of household names. Key among these are HBO with its 130 million subscribers and TNT, which is standard on most pay-TV bundles. The giant increased its content and digital advertising capabilities with the...

By Brett Sappington and Billy Nayden What a great coincidence that AT&T’s acquisition of the company that brought us the power struggles of Westeros and Game of Thrones is likely to set off a new era of competition in pay TV. With a federal judge approving AT&T’s $85 billion buyout of Time Warner late Tuesday afternoon, the courts cleared a path for a number of imminent media deals that will undoubtedly bring substantial change to the media landscape....

Another day of meetings and discovery at CES 2018. Here are a few additional thoughts on what I have seen at the show on day two. 8K is moving closer to reality. Yes. I understand. 4K is just gaining a foothold in the market, and HDR provides a visual pop at retail that may be more compelling than 4K alone. Yet, new 8K-based products are in evidence, with several slated for public release later this year. Samsung’s massive 146-inch “The Wall” TV (which is actually modular...

On February 8th, Verizon moved to introduce its new—and first—smart watch, the Wear24 . The Wear24 is one of the first Android Wear 2.0 devices. Its standout feature is that it offers LTE connectivity, and is capable of making and receiving calls and texts without being paired to a nearby smartphone. (You still need to have a phone on Verizon's network, though.) Like the LG Watch Sport—another Wear 2.0 device, developed by LG in partnership with Google—the Wear24 offers...

This is an interesting time to be in music streaming. Competition is rife, and the margins are thin. The largest players are either unicorns in search of profitability (i.e., Spotify, Pandora) or tech giants looking to lock consumers into their ecosystem (Apple, Google, Amazon). Smaller players are increasingly looking at ways to differentiate and stay afloat. For example, Sprint recently announced that it is acquiring one-third of TIDAL, a rebranding of the Norwegian WiMP service...