The future of chorus mmds

glic83

Decided to start a new thread in stead of posting in someone elses,anyone know what will happen with mmds on chorus in the future as it stand no pvr,no hd and you cant get bb from them if your on mmds yet you pay the same amount as cable customers for less channels?they are not giving mmds customers much options if they want hd are they?

bk

HD, BB or more channels will never be on MMDS, they simply don't have the radio spectrum to offer more channels.

MMDS long term future is also in question as UPC's license for the radio spectrum is due to run out in a few years and Comreg is expected to take it back and reuse it.

UPC could use MMDS at a very high frequency, but that would require a big investment.

The reality is UPC will probably just cable the highest value / easiest to reach MMDS areas and leave the rest to switch to DTT or Sat.

channelsurfer2

bk wrote: »

HD, BB or more channels will never be on MMDS, they simply don't have the radio spectrum to offer more channels.

MMDS long term future is also in question as UPC's license for the radio spectrum is due to run out in a few years and Comreg is expected to take it back and reuse it.

UPC could use MMDS at a very high frequency, but that would require a big investment.

The reality is UPC will probably just cable the highest value / easiest to reach MMDS areas and leave the rest to switch to DTT or Sat.

i remember when they took over the old CMI cable network.. they promised lots of investment and digital cable but now in 2010 at least in tullamore the only digital cable is digital mmds...they havent even started to upgrade the fibre yet...and all those new estates built just on the outskirts of the town centre that the could have cabled(at least 1000 houses) were mmds only as they told the developers they werent interested in cabling them.

glic83

bk wrote: »

HD, BB or more channels will never be on MMDS, they simply don't have the radio spectrum to offer more channels.

MMDS long term future is also in question as UPC's license for the radio spectrum is due to run out in a few years and Comreg is expected to take it back and reuse it.

UPC could use MMDS at a very high frequency, but that would require a big investment.

The reality is UPC will probably just cable the highest value / easiest to reach MMDS areas and leave the rest to switch to DTT or Sat.

there is still a fair amount of customers on mmds,suppose the long term is would getting cable to these homes and costs out weigh the income from customers

Sam Russell

I would think the future of MMDS is DTT. If full DTT ever gets launched, it will offer the same [or simmillar] at a reduced cost. If Onevision pull out, and EasyTV get the gig, RTE and UPC will be in charge of it, and hey presto, MMDS morphs into DTT.

glic83

thats grand if that happens but looks likely it will be a few years away yet that doesnt do much for customers at the moment though

Sam Russell

glic83 wrote: »

thats grand if that happens but looks likely it will be a few years away yet that doesnt do much for customers at the moment though

Nothing happens fast in this business. Correction, nothing happens.

Boxer took 9 months to go away. Onevision have taken a year, and have not done anythig yet. If they go away, then EasyTV, get there chance. ........................... Yaawwwnnnnnn.

glic83

well its a good thing i have set up a motorised sat dish then,might put up a sky dish just to have the ability to have freesat in the other rooms

Solair

They most definitely made a *huge* mistake by not cabling large areas of what is effectively suburban Cork.

There are even areas in the city itself which aren't properly cabled i.e. some houses have it, others don't seemingly at random.

E.g. there are literally thousands of houses in Carrigaline which are not on cable, even though some of the older areas of it are fully cabled, although I have no idea what level of service is provided on those cables.

It's a massive missed opportunity as retrofitting cable to housing developments that are already built is far more expensive than just laying the cable in the first place.

Chorus just saw Cable and MMDS as identical products from a sales point of view and didn't bother investing assuming they could get away with their unique selling point which was access to BBC/UTV/C4 etc.

Then got wiped out by Sky and forgot about broadband / telephony, which are basically what's driving cable uptake now!

I'd say the UPC management must be really scratching their heads at some of the decisions that Chorus took during the PEAK of a massive spending boom in Ireland!

I realise they were cash-strapped, but their short-term approach is basically what killed them off!

The Cush

The situation with MMDS right now is - the old NTL licences expire in 2012, the old Chorus licences expire in 2014.

There is an option in the current regulations to extend the licences for a further 5 years to 2019 (subject to review).

Comreg is to begin an MMDS Licence review in Q2 (after 18 April).

The review will probably include a reduction in the amount of spectrum available to MMDS as a result of an EC Decision on this band in 2008 and Comreg's stated position on the band in 2003.

The loss of MMDS spectrum in the band could be offset by the use DVB-T2/C2/MPEG-4.

glic83

well all we can do is wait and see either way at the moment sat is probably the best option for a sub

Solair

UPC operate satellite services in other countries. Would there be anything to stop them to doing likewise here ?

If they could get some kind of agreement to list FTA BBC, ITV etc in their EPG and then just lease a few extra transponders for the rest of their service, they would have a very good replacement for MMDS and who knows, it might be cheaper to rent transponders on a satellite than to pay a fortune for the maintenance of obsolete MMDS sites.

Kensington

They wouldn't even need to rent out additional transponders. Simulcrypting would allow them to aproach channels with whom they have a carriage agreement with, and add in a Nagra stream alongside the NDS one on the existing transmissions for sky. Very common practice on the continent.