We all know how cable TV is declining. There is a gradual switch to other technologies, including wireless pay TV. In recent years, we’ve seen AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon try to deliver pay TV wirelessly. However, these early efforts have yet to catch fire. Not yet anyway. So the next step appears to be for the FCC to grant his two low-power television networks his six-month experimental license. Will this work?
Sometimes innovation takes the world by storm and changes everything overnight. Let’s take super smartphones like iPhone and Android as an example. It may also appear suddenly, or it may not grow at all.
Why did AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon miss out on wireless pay TV?
Wireless pay TV seems like an exciting new technology that has the potential to change both the wireless and pay TV markets. After all, we use smartphones and tablets everywhere.
So why haven’t AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon been successful in offering and growing this new service? They started tinkering with it over five years ago.
I remember this because I wrote several columns on this topic in 2018. The theme hasn’t moved much since then.
Comparing 5G TV and Wireless Home Internet
It’s important to understand that there are two different technologies.
· One is wireless pay TV, or 5G TV, which we’re talking about here. This is a full-service alternative to cable TV. Currently, cable TV companies offer limited channels on smartphones and tablets when you’re on the go.
· The other is wireless home internet. This brings 5G wireless speeds to your home. This is something some wireless carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile offer.
Pay TV delivery using 5G technology will replace the cables used by cable TV and deliver wireless signals into homes.
This has many advantages. Some of them include how the number of competitors in the industry will increase. How it can increase innovation and lower prices. What alternatives are offered to areas where old cables are still in use? With it, you will be able to do a lot of things, such as being able to watch TV anywhere, at home or on the go.
Xfinity, Spectrum, Altice use wireless with cable TV
Cable TV competitors offer scaled-down versions of wireless pay TV. Comcast Xfinity, Charter Spectrum, and Altice allow users to watch some channels over a wireless connection or via an app.
This is not a complete cable TV experience. That said, you can imagine how the cable TV industry could actually benefit from this new direction. It will be a huge cost saving for them. It uses the internet and wireless to distribute the signal.
Traditionally, this costs a lot of money just to keep a wired cable TV network running. That’s why you always see cable TV trucks around town fixing weak links in an ever-evolving network.
That being said, they haven’t moved the needle yet either.
FCC grants experimental 5G TV license to support wireless development
The next step is for the Federal Communications Commission to grant experimental licenses to small businesses when large companies fail.
Additionally, the FCC granted an experimental license to Sinclair Broadcasting Group in 2021.
The hope is that low-power TV networks, working with users that traditional cable TV can’t, may be able to get creative and crack the code and make 5G TV a reality.
XGen Networks and Milachi Media will use this new experimental license.
XGen Networks and Milachi Media secure FCC experimental 5G TV license
I haven’t met XGen Networks and Milachi Media yet, so I don’t know exactly what they have in mind yet. That way you can fill in some of the blanks.
That being said, if they are working with the FCC on this experimental license, they must be strong enough and have some cutting edge ideas they want to develop.
An experimental license allows you to do just that.
Wireless continues to move forward as an industry in many ways. 5G TV is just one of them. Since wireless TV hasn’t had much success competing against larger competitors in recent years, the FCC apparently believes these smaller companies can generate new thinking and ideas and build new markets.
Breaking the code with 5G TV
I hope the FCC is right. Let’s see what happens next.
This is how many explosive growth sectors started. Remember when the iPhone and Android came out and the wireless data and app market started, there were only a few hundred apps and very few people participated.
Things started to change as wireless carriers lowered their prices and promoted and marketed their app markets. In just a few years, hundreds of apps have grown into millions of apps.
Today, we can do more with our smartphones than ever before. But it started to slow down.
If these small businesses can crack the code, 5G TV could represent a huge and exciting new growth opportunity. Additionally, new competitors may enter the pay-TV space.
The idea is that 5G wireless technology will change the way we think about and use TV, just as it did when the app market was new and struggling.
New thinking, new ideas, new products and services have the potential to change everything. Let’s hope they hit a home run this time.
