The best data I have seen on broadband and TV has come from Cable One (top 10 MSOs), since the CEO there declared 3 years ago that it was going to de-emphasize TV and focus on broadband.

When Cable One acquired NewWave cable in 2016, they released this data. 428k homes passed, 23.5% video penetration, 25.8% broadband penetration. Overall Cable One has a 31% broadband penetration of homes passed.

Light Reading reports, “Cable One’s strategy to focus on broadband and de-emphasize pay-TV continued to play out in Q1 2019, as the operator saw its average revenue per unit (ARPU) reach an industry high among its US peers. … A residential broadband ARPU of $70.80 in Q1 made Cable One the first publicly traded US cable operator to eclipse the $70 mark, according to Craig Moffett, an analyst with MoffettNathanson.”

Cable One’s average data usage at the end of Q1 was 290 gigabytes per month.

4 Reasons TV is Changing & Declining:

1. The term cable is becoming extinct [HERE]
2. Comcast and Cox have added Amazon Prime and Netflix as a channel.
3. Hotels now have channels on the TV to login to Netflix, Amazon and Hulu to reduce the TV costs for the company.
4. “The firm said that about 31 million U.S. consumers, 12% of the adult population are Cord Nevers (CNs).” [source]

It isn’t about the triple play as much as it is giving your customers options and value — and explaining that value.  Choice & Value.

Gigabit penetration nationwide is just 6%, but it gets them to buy higher speeds.

• Do you customers have a computer? Tablets? Alexa? Hardware-as-a-service, folks!
• Do you rent Apple TVs or Roku?
• If you sell fixed wireless, do you offer HDTV antennas?
• If you sell voice, do you block Robocalls?

WI-FI

Business or home wi-fi is very important. Comcast knows it.

U.S. broadband households now have an average of 9.1 connected devices,” said Brad Russell, Research Director, Connected Home, Parks Associates.

BRANDING!

Charter re-branded as Spectrum. Cable One is re-branding as Sparklight. Verizon has FiOS.

• Do you have a product brand?
• Did you have a service launch plan for your fiber?
• Are you using CRM?
• What tactics are you using to reach customers? List them.
• How are you tracking each campaign/tactic?

Pew Research data on household demographics – Home broadband use by income [here]

About 65% or more than 164 million adults in the United States play video games, according to a new video game demographics report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). [source]

TELEHEALTH:”Nearly a quarter (22%) of physicians have used telehealth to see patients, and a new telehealth forecast suggests that 61% of doctors will use it by 2022.” [source]

Microsoft’s Airband Program is looking for partners. AT&T’s FirstNet wants more rural partners.

It’s Microsoft vs. Comcast in infrastructure push to expand rural broadband – but a big mapping problem. Microsoft is still pushing its White Spaces Plan at the FCC.

On the map: Microsoft has its own map that it uses for Airband Project.

There are many parties involved in broadband mapping including the FCC, the NTIA (part of the Dept of Commerce) and the USDA. There are many lobbying bodies sticking their nose in, most notably NTCA. The others include Connected Nation, WIA – The Wireless Infrastructure Association, ITTA – The Voice of America’s Broadband Providers and CCIA.

It looks like only about 2% of the households are without broadband. [FYI, In 2018, there were about 127.59 million households in the United States.] “The last two percent of U.S. housing locations, as shown by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission National Broadband Plan and Broadband Availability Gap analysis, are the areas where the geographically-produced digital divide is most acute,” as reported by Gary Kim. BUt then it depends which map/data is used, right?

The FCC has yet another program to give USF moneys to rate-of-return carriers:

“The FCC said today that it has made new offers of broadband support to 516 rural carriers. The new FCC broadband support offers target more than one million homes and businesses and are based on the ACAM (alternative Connect America) cost model. The offers went to rate-of-return carriers that previously rejected or weren’t eligible for ACAM broadband support. … If a carrier accepts a new offer, it will receive funding over a period of 10 years and will be required to meet specific build-out milestones over that time.” [telecomp]

Fun Fact:
Charter: Broadband-Only Users Average 400 GB of Monthly Data Usage
Comcast said median usage is around 200 gigabytes

You’ve published 2,280 entries with 173 comments on TMC from Feb. 21, 2008 to Sept., 2017. This was after a year blogging on Virgo.

On this blog (NSP Strategy) I have published 3,939 posts going back to June 2004.

I have 121 posts on my newest blog Channelplaybook.com.

That is 6,340 posts in 15 years.

There have been numerous articles in magazines like Internet Telephony, Phone+, Cloud Computing and Channel Vision (where I still publish).

It is now 5 books. The original sold over a thousand copies: SELLECOM: 101 Ideas for Marketing in the Telecom Jungle. It was published in January 2008 after 15 months of work. It is still available in paperback or eBook, but it is dated. The industry just isn’t the same 11 years later.

LIT Buildings was a guide for selling into lit buildings.

Setting the Sail was my first eBook in 2010.

The one that my friends call the coloring book was published in paperback in 2015 and is still selling strong. It was one of the first books written on how to sell cloud services.

My favorite is Secrets of Channel Managers in 2014. This was done on Amazon via the now defunct createspace platform, which was easy to use. Lulu.com was the publishing platform I started on. This book took 9 months to produce, but it took over ten years of experience to make possible.

Fifteen years of writing. It all started with just one article.

Podcasts, webinars, worksheets, workshops, training sessions, talks, panel moderation and keynoting – I have tried it all. It has been quite the journey of 20 years, 100+ client companies, 6000+ articles and 5 books.

From the Mailchimp email:

This year I have been working with a couple more UCaaS providers on messaging, Value Proposition and improving their channel sales program.

Most of my consulting has been with ISPs, CLECs and VoIP Providers.

It turns out that many tech firms need help with marketing and that starts with the Value Proposition. A Tampa based MSP brought me to assist in creating the Value Proposition. Also, two SaaS companies just contracted for the same thing.

Would you be interested in working on your Value Proposition?

Slide deck to explain the Value Proposition. But in a nutshell Value Proposition is what makes you special. It answers Why Should I Buy from You?

What Else am I Doing? 

A large organization is bringing me to observe and report on the org as a whole. Sales, channel messaging, internal communications and service delivery are the areas that I will be observing. Culture plays a piece of this as well.

I have done this for three other providers over the years. Not everyone wants to know what they are doing worng and how they can improve it. What can I help your business with? This is my 20th anniversary in telecom. I have worked with over 100 service providers in some capacity. That’s a good amount of stored knowledge that you get to leverage. Call me. Let’s talk.

NEC asked me to speak at their partner event in Orlando in June. I would like to do more of that.

Do you need bandwidth or circuits? Because I am still an active telecom agent quoting and provisioning 50+ carriers including AT&T, VZ, GTT, cable, Zayo, HE, Cogent, FiberLight, Crown Castle (FPL) to name a few.

Social: follow me on social media.

I post a lot of news on twitter @radinfo that I don’t have time to blog about or post elsewhere.  You don’t have to join twitter to read the tweets.

I try to post broadband news (especially USF/CAF info and other impactful stuff) on this Facebook group. 

I still blog here and on ChannelPlaybook.com. I still have a column in Channel Vision magazine.

NEC invited me to speak to their partner community in June at their event.

Do you need bandwidth or circuits? Because I am still an active telecom agent quoting and provisioning 50+ carriers including AT&T, VZ, GTT, cable, Zayo, HE, Cogent, FiberLight, Crown Castle (FPL) to name a few.