Carrier WiFi's Not Winning in Sports Arenas

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ZA-guy 3/17/2014 | 6:46:12 AM

Re: Waning Carrier Wi-Fi LTE & WiFi makes more sense for the OTT that are trying to push content to end users. The likely scenario is guys like google and FB, which are today more valuable than operators, might start thinking about acquiring some of the operators.

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mendyk 2/13/2014 | 10:15:24 AM

Re: Location Based "Gaming" Sports fans in general don't need social media to enhance their experience. That's what fist fights are for.

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cwgservices 2/13/2014 | 8:23:32 AM

Re: Location Based "Gaming" I think there's a lot of potential for the use of social media on site at sporting events, and nearly all of it would enhance the experience. I'm not clear on the monetization aspect; if the attendees would have to pay for wifi on top of the outrageous ticket, food, and drink prices, then I'd be pretty disgusted with the whole idea. If, on the other hand, ads were sold to subsidize the cost of wifi, that would not be objectionable as long as there weren't enough to significantly impact the use of the service.

How many ads would be too many? Here's an example from another arena: the free on-demand-video from FX networks that I can get on Comcast has too many ads, I prefer to wait till I can see it in its entirety. One ad at the beginning would be fine, but interrupting the story is not. My wife would put up with more ads, because she watches regular television fairly often and is used to it.

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komatineni 2/11/2014 | 5:54:51 AM

Re: Waning Carrier Wi-Fi End of the day Voice is still important for the end user. One may say the teens stopped using it but that's still kind of mandatory for many not-so-teen folks. At the same time I believe DAS alone can't help the data needs. Probably small cells or Wi-Fi with VoWi-Fi (with IMS in I see why can't we do that now) will bridge the gap. End of the carriers love to see more revenue or less costs or both of it :)

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Sarah Thomas 2/10/2014 | 10:15:59 PM

Re: Location Based "Gaming" Those are some interesting monetization suggestions, jabailo. I think making the game more social online is one thing stadiums are interested in (although trash talking is easier online, so meeting up during half time could be dangerous!). Texting campaigns have already proven popular at sporting events, so, in some respects, it's a natural evolution. It'd have to add to the game, not detract, though.

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jabailo 2/10/2014 | 10:05:52 PM

Location Based "Gaming" I've always had trouble with outbound services in my local stadiums (Seattle area). I can see why the businesses might not want their customers able to do things like broadcast scores directly from there.

That aside, I can still see an avenue for the local use of devices. For example how about being able to hook up to locally hosted server that broadcasts the scoreboard? For those of us who get the cheapseats, it would be great to see the replays on our tablets, or to see close up the detailed data.

Then how about real world social media? We could all be commenting and chatthing about the game with people inside the stadium. Then at breaks, use GPS and find each other and hook up. Maybe some "love connections" could be formed, or just a bunch of people having lunch at halftime.

Each major league game is a combination Flash Mob and media mashup. Why not make more out of it?

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Sarah Thomas 2/10/2014 | 4:45:53 PM

Re: Waning Carrier Wi-Fi That's true, it is still a niche play (with MVNOs too) and maybe not as big of a deal in a hetnet environment if it has seamless handoff.

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TaraSeals 2/10/2014 | 4:42:08 PM

Re: Waning Carrier Wi-Fi Well, they're using it as a private network to support businesses in campus environments. WiMAX is still kicking around in that market. They just want to tie it all together with the mobile WAN and offer a UC client for smartphones and tablets that can switch off seamlessly between the networks. I thought it was interesting.

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Sarah Thomas 2/10/2014 | 4:37:26 PM

Re: Waning Carrier Wi-Fi I'm glad they see carrier WiFi as offering a lot of potential, because I'm not sure that WiMax does!

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TaraSeals 2/10/2014 | 4:12:49 PM

Re: Waning Carrier Wi-Fi It's kind of cool too--this morning I was talking to a smaller provider, PNG Global, and they're building their own WiMAX-based network and are talking to Sprint and others about LTE and 3G handoffs. They're also deploying carrier Wi-Fi. Going forward, they're wanting to offer an FMC, multi-access offering for businesses and see that as having a lot of potential.

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