Cablefax The Magazine - July 2015 - 20

2015 Top Ops Awards
INDEPENDENT PROJECT LAUNCH OF THE YEAR
110Mbps Broadband Rollout
WOW!
Thinking about WOW!'s phased rollout of 110 Mbps service to residential
and business customers, which began early in Q1, got me
wondering about the nature of speed. Namely, how fast is fast?
I asked a friend who'd fl own often across the Atlantic on the
Concorde, whose top speed was 1,354 miles per hour, if it felt fast
inside the cabin. My friend responded that a Concorde fl ight always
was luxurious, smooth and offered great giveaways, including a gold
Cross pen. Yet the ride itself seemed like any other airplane fl ight.
Of course, the trip across the Atlantic, which takes about seven
hours on a 747-400 at 570 mph, took 3 hours and change on the
Concorde, whose last fl ight was in November 2003.
I asked Karl Ossentjuk, VP of marketing and product management at
WOW!, if the user would be able to notice the speed of 110 Mbps. A
single user, alone in a household, using one device " probably would not "
see the difference between 110 and 50, WOW!'s previous top speed, he
said. Yet if that single user were running several devices simultaneously,
the difference in service would be noticeable. In addition, Ossentjuk said,
certain things will seem faster, for example, " downloading the newest
game off your PS4, " or a fi lm. My last download, a 45-minute television
show, took about 10 minutes using the WiFi service in my apartment
building, which usually seems fast. Ossentjuk assured me under good
conditions it likely would have been " noticeably faster " with 110 Mbps
service, depending " on the time of day. "
A better example, Ossentjuk said, is a household with several people
using multiple devices-laptops, iPads, PS4s-simultaneously. " Each
user certainly would appreciate the performance, the lack of buffering
[during streaming]... it's more about numbers of simultaneous users
across multiple devices, this is where [110] comes into play. " Similarly,
with business customers, 110 Mbps is advantageous in offi ces
where multiple users are engaged on a wireless system.
While WOW! wants to wow customers with this new capability, and
the phased rollout over several weeks was smooth, the company realizes
" [110 Mbps] may be more capacity than many of our customers
want, [although] it will be a great option for heavier Internet users, "
FAST FACTS
Fast Facts
uWOW! charges residential customers $115/month for 110
Mbps, although there also are promotional specials.
uWOW! has 40K miles of local fi ber-optic cable networks
across its 10-state footprint.
u110 Mbps service is available in nearly all its markets,
passing 2.5mln WOW! homes.
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cablefaxmag.com
said Debra Schmidt, who manages Lawrence, KS, which was 110's
fi rst market. Accordingly, it has been marketed largely by inserting
verbiage mentioning a top speed of 110 Mbps where 50 Mbps used to
be. " We want customers to know about it, but it hasn't been the center
point of all of our marketing because it's not something that everyone
needs at this point, " Ossentjuk said. WOW! has used normal digital
tactics, including paid search and display, and direct mail.
WOW! has yet to poll customers about the service, Ossentjuk said,
yet " we haven't heard anything negative either... at some point we
will do a survey. " In terms of take rates, WOW! has seen " a quicker
uptake on the business side than on the residential side because
the demand for it is greater, but we expected that. " The take rates
themselves also have been " about what WOW! expected. "
As for future plans, WOW! said in a 2014 statement it will " continue
to raise the speed limit throughout 2015. " Ossentjuk said, " We will
assess [110] and continue to think about our Internet strategy. "
- Seth Arenstein
July 2015
Cablefax: The Magazine
http://www.cablefaxmag.com
Cablefax The Magazine - July 2015

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