Personalised broadband is the way even the fixed market should go, before 6G lands
While European operators race to build out their fibre infrastructures, they might pause to consider Starry Group Holdings’ mission – to offer personalised broadband. European telcos definitely don’t want to be explaining to shareholders and customers that their legacy infrastructure – the stuff they’re putting in the ground now and associated systems – prevents them offering differentiated services sometime soon.
US-based Starry is develop fixed wireless access (FWA) tech and uses it as an ISP, whose mission was probably spurred somewhat by the symmetrical (upload and download) speeds launched in the US on fibre by AT&T, Frontier Communications and Ziply in response to the change in traffic patterns.
What matters to you?
Starry’s mantra is that fast broadband should be affordable, but thinks customers should be able to choose service parameters like latency and changes to up- and downstream speeds, dependent on what they use broadband for and their budget.
From the operator’s point of view, it’s also a powerful differentiator. This is interesting because disruptive analyst John Strand, founder and CEO of Strand Consult, has long argued that the Europe’s Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) is barking up the wrong tree about what consumers and other users want, and misleading European Union policy makers.
In particular, he cites the obsession with top transmission speeds and an emphasis on certain technologies when other parameters – say, consistency and affordability – could be far more important to many. Not to mention the methods it uses to judge and penalise service providers that don’t comply and its lack of transparency, despite being a public body.
Some forward-thinking operators are putting considerable efforts into this before 6G’s expected arrival in about 2030, when antennas will be far closer to users’ premises thanks to the fibre infrastructure to provide a tunable edge for ordinary users – eventually.
Disaggregating fixed access
For example, Deutsche Telekom’s move to disaggregate the fixed access network is to reduce costs, use best in class components, gain greater operational flexibility and business model options. Listen to Fabian Schneider, Head of Access 4.0 DevOps, Deutsche Telekom, at Mobile Europe’s recent Technology & Strategy conference talking about its motivation and progress – and being able to fine tune offers in weeks instead of years.
Meanwhile, back in the US, Starry’s new add-on feature is available on a trial basis and allows customers to increase their dedicated upload capacity from $5 a month as the first step towards personalisation of broadband, and as the general demand for bandwidth in homes increases.
Alex Moulle-Berteaux, Starry’s Chief Operating Officer, comments, “Prescriptive pricing plans are dead in the future. Upload Boost is our first step in giving customers the ability to upsize their upload capacity to meet their usage needs. If you’re working from home and having to deal with moving large documents all day, or if you spend the majority of your time on video calls, you understand the need to have robust upload capacity.
“This new add-on feature allows you to add that capacity with just one click. The flip side of that is, if you don’t have the need for additional upload capacity, we’re not going to force it on you and increase your monthly fees. This level of customization, flexibility, and control is what consumers crave and we’re excited to preview Upload Boost as the next step in personalizing our internet service.”
On trial
Upload Boost is available on a trial basis in certain markets. Starry customers on the Starry Plus (up to 200Mbps download / 100Mbps upload) service plan can increase their upload capacity to up to 200Mbps and new customers can opt for Upload Boost at sign up. Customers who opt to add the Upload Boost feature to their monthly service can also remove the plan at any time.
Starry’s network covers more than 5.7 million households across six metropolitan areas including Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, DC, Denver and Columbus, Ohio. In July, Starry announced it would be launching Las Vegas, Nevada before the end of the year.