Another Major Carrier Unveils Fixed Services over its Current LTE Network
The U.S. Cellular has announced its intention to offer a fixed wireless service in addition to its current LTE network in locations all through its coverage area. According to the company, the offer is intended to use the surplus network capacity that has not been utilized in rural areas to a wired internet connection. U.S. Cellular, rightly believes, that this will continue to drive sales for the mobile services and phones of the company.
Currently the new service of U.S. Cellular comes in a range of prices from $40 for 20GB/month to $70 for 90GB/month. Customers who are outside their data allotment will not be charged for excesses but will be subject to reduction in the connections to the speeds of 2G. It is of importance to note that the U.S. Cellular also provides unlimited alternative to connectivity but with a caveat that consumes who exceed the 160GB benchmark for the month will have their connection reduced to the speed of 2G.
Data allotments are usually pegged at the standard monthly data consumption of the user, or sometimes below it. This insight was further buttressed by two cable companies, Comcast and Altice. According to Comcast, its Xfinity home-based internet consumers use an average of 151GB of data connection within the month of June, while Altice revealed that its wired-based internet users utilized an average of 220GB data connection on a monthly basis in the course of the second quarter of the year.
Startup Starry, building high speed access in Boston, discovered during tests conducted last year that the average monthly traffic of individual customers was about 480GB in a month. Startup Starry went further to reveal that about 20% of its high-end consumers use an average of 1.6TB on a monthly basis. Users in the high end category include the likes of Netflix.
It is crucial to point out that the trend with mobile usage is quite different from commercial usage. According to the U.S. Cellular, its mobile consumers that signed up for unlimited data package usually consume about 8GB on a monthly basis, as revealed in the second quarter study.
When signing up for fixed wireless service, users will be sent a D-Link router from U.S. Cellular to be able to connect to the LTE network and generate a local Wi-Fi network for the consumer’s tablets, computers, and other mobile devices.
At the recently concluded quarterly conference call of the company, Kenneth Meyers, a member of U.S. Cellular’s team mentioned that the organization currently has 4G-fixed wireless product that is aimed at rural areas where the cable is not available. According to him, the product is driving significant incremental sales. He added that the company will continue to evaluate the technology of the 5G network for different applications which include fixed wireless.
Gilbert A Darrell is the Founder of Horizon. He has 18 years experience in information technology and telecom solutions, a veteran in Fire and EMS Services, a crypto enthusiast and a member of the Bermuda Government’s Cryptocurrency Task Force.
Horizon Communications is an upcoming fixed wireless internet and cellular service provider looking to provide services in Bermuda, the Caribbean, and Central America before expanding internationally. While utilizing 4th generation and soon 5th generation wireless technology,it will also heavily incorporate blockchain and cryptocurrency technology.
More information can be found on their website — www.HorizonComm.co
