Cable companies have been pushing into wireless with more urgency than ever lately -- take
Cox and
Comcast, just to name a couple -- and now it seems Cablevision is taking a good, hard look at launching a cellphone service under its Optimum brand. Current service subscribers are being asked if they'd be interested in "unlimited calling, texting, and internet data access" for $29.95 a month, which is ridiculously, mind-numbingly low for such a package if Cablevision is actually capable of delivering. It seems they'll try to bridge the gap by launching the service with a WiFi slant -- presumably using
UMA -- falling back to cellular on the road when you're outside the range of one of Optimum's hotspots. They're promising "a variety of smartphone choices that offer features comparable to those offered by iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry," so hey, if the price is right and the service actually works, why not? There's no word on when Optimum might launch this action, but we have a hard time believing many of the people that got the survey actually responded "no."
[Thanks, Maikel]
posted March 30th 2010 8:37PM
Will this just be another Limited - Unlimited plan?
Maybe max 1200min/1200txt-1GB data for 29.99 or ?
Just like the saying goes, if it seems too good 2b true...
They said everything unlimited for 30 bucks... I don't get the UMA part but if is good then why not give a shot.
1000000% absolutely guaranteed this will ONLY be for people who ALREADY have the uber-quad-ultimate 1000 channel $300/month TV package.
Just another way to entice people into high cost TV packages.
@Johnny Rockets
Right on. You best believe this will be internally(unofficially) known as the "Marionette Plan".
@Johnny Rockets I'll put 100 bux on the underdog with that 1000-1 payoff. $100 or less plans will make this in, it's easier to upsell a phone rather than to upsell cable, you're solution isn't using enough market psychology.
Looks like prices will have to come down on the telco's side if this is true. Data is data, and if they can offer service that rivals the Telephone companies for a 1/3 of the price and they use their cable side no contract policies this might make people switch.
This should've made Engadget main page.