- Convergence isn't just about bundling broadband and mobile at a cheaper price, said ConnectX panelists
- Operators should focus on a "value-driven" approach to help customers put the connectivity pieces together, according to Verizon
- Wireless players will require their own fiber to meet future spectrum needs
CONNECTX, CHICAGO – Convergence — both the buzzword and the bundling of wired and wireless services — is all the rage right now. But it’s not just about offering more affordable services to customers, experts noted at a ConnectX panel.
Jonathan Chaplin, managing partner at New Street Research, said while discounted services help operators acquire subscribers, “convergence is what they find when they become your customers.”
It’s also not so much what convergence is but why. Operators are eyeing bundles as a way to reduce churn and increase market share, Chaplin said. Although he’s skeptical about how companies can gain that market share as bundling becomes more prevalent, it’s certainly an advantage “to do that in markets where their competitors can’t.”
Customers may say they’re switching ISPs due to price, said Xfinity Mobile SVP Kohposh Kuda, but they want to make sure the network meets their satisfaction. Comcast recently stepped up its convergence game, unveiling new price plans that come with a free mobile line for one year.
In Comcast’s view, convergence comes in two buckets: Value and experience. “The goal is to do both,” Kuda said, and “unlock new value when customers take multiple products together.”
Jonathan Nikols, SVP of Global Enterprise Sales at Verizon Business, agreed with his fellow panelists that convergence is not about discounting but is “value-oriented.”
From an enterprise perspective, “many customers do not have the capacity to pull all the connectivity pieces together,” Nikols explained. This is especially relevant given the rise of AI, which is a “huge opportunity” for convergence.
“With AI coming, customers want to de-risk and move connectivity to one trusted provider,” he said. “Most importantly what they’re looking for is the applications on top of the network.”
Fiber is king for convergence
It’s no secret fiber infrastructure is generally considered more reliable than wireless technologies. And soon enough, wireless providers who don’t have their own fiber are going to be at a “significant competitive disadvantage,” Chaplin said.
Spectrum below 6 GHz that operators can deploy on “70-80,000 cell site grids” will eventually be “exhausted.” Once that happens, they will need “much higher frequencies of spectrum to keep feeding the beast of wireless consumption,” he added, which will naturally require more fiber.
From both the consumer and price perspective, “wherever fiber goes, ultimately wireless goes also,” Chaplin said.