“Be afraid. Be very afraid.” That was the warning given by Geena Davis’ character in David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake of The Fly, as she beheld the horror of Jeff Goldblum’s hybrid man-insect ‘Brundlefly.’

It is also the advice being offered to incumbent U.S. mobile carriers by many within the analyst community as Comcast prepares to unleash a hybrid beast of its own. Word that the cable giant has appointed a lead for its newly hatched mobile division indicates it is readying the launch of a full breadth connectivity play, having last year activated its MVNO agreement with Verizon. The industry is buzzing with anticipation.

Related:Comcast Shakes Up Tech, Operations Ranks

Sci-Fi tales of hybrids are often cautionary, used to project the message that fundamental laws of nature should not be disrupted by meddling boundary pushers. Mobile carriers probably feel the same way about the laws of the industry: Mobile service should be left to the mobile specialists because it was ever thus.

But the hybrids in these stories almost always start out showing great promise. Before teeth, fingernails and other key appendages began dropping off Seth Brundle, the character enjoyed a host of enhancements, most notably huge boosts in strength, agility and appeal. So while there is caution in the conclusion, the prospect of success is enticing and ever-present.

There is certainly strength and appeal in the theory many industry observers believe will be at the heart Comcast’s proposition:; a blend of cellular and WiFi conceived to harness the complementary powers in each technology’s DNA. Cellular connectivity will serve consumers who are on the move and outdoors, and WiFi in places where they like to feast on rich content.

Rather than a ‘WiFi First’ play, what Comcast could well be readying is something which puts connectivity first, delivering service based on the customer’s circumstances at the point of demand, and not on a partisan attitude to either underlying bearer.

As always, timing is everything. Research published in July by Parks Associates suggests U.S. mobile carriers are shifting their focus from ARPU growth to churn management as new smartphone users become increasingly hard to find. And among the top priorities of smartphone users who consider themselves likely to churn within the next 12 months, according to a Parks survey, is a WiFi element to the mobile service.

Two thirds of likely churners ranked managed access to WiFi as "very important" to their decision, positioning WiFi (in the context of the survey) as a more compelling piece of the proposition than a loyalty rewards program, the chance of an early handset upgrade or a long contract to offset upfront costs. WiFi was ranked equally attractive as the ability to roll over unused mobile data allowance.

Meanwhile, data published recently by Nielsen shows the number of U.S. consumers watching video on smartphones in Q1 this year was more than 110 million, a 29% year-on-year increase. These users racked up a total of almost 11,000 years of video consumption; a 67% increase on Q1 2015. More people are watching more video on their smartphones, and the growth is far from over.

With this kind of demand, WiFi is crucial to any service that aims to provide comprehensive smartphone connectivity. Google’s Project Fi, another heavyweight hybrid threatening to disrupt the U.S. mobile status quo, has been conceived along very similar lines. For both Comcast and Google — unlike the mobile carriers — connectivity itself is not the product. They simply want end users to be better able to consume content, wherever they go: How consumers do that is far less important than the fact that they can.

The fly in the ointment for Comcast is that its WiFi network is heavily (though not exclusively) dependent on domestic locations; "homespots," which will see very little traffic beyond that generated by the residents themselves.

Project Fi, on the other hand, brings public WiFi into the mix, offering the same capacity benefits to data-hungry, cost-conscious consumers where they need it when they’re out and about.

In this way the Fi approach is closer to that taken by the world’s largest international cable company, Liberty Global. Earlier this year Liberty became the first tier - service provider to build freely shared public WiFi into its service across its entire European MVNO footprint, a powerful complement to its existing domestic WiFi and cellular connectivity proposition.

Shared public WiFi also offers mobile carriers an easy route to hybrid service, and it looks likely that, as LTE networks begin to encounter the congestion and performance issues that blighted 3G, those carriers’ own interest in WiFi as a strategic connectivity asset may be on the increase.

Consumers want high quality smartphone connectivity everywhere they go — and studies such as the one from Parks Associates mentioned above suggest that the winners in this service provider tussle will be the players that combine the best of everything available into a single, unified connectivity service.

Well executed hybrids are the future of the industry. Everything else will be swatted aside.

Dave Fraser is CEO of Devicescape, a developer of wireless networking software.

Comcast and Cablevision Systems have both launched initiatives around so-called WiFi “homespots,” which center on the use of secondary SSID signals in wireless routers that enable other credentialed customers to connect at no additional cost.  

Comcast and Cablevision now have something else in common – they’re both facing almost identical lawsuits over this practice.

The latest suit is being lobbed at Cablevision over allegations that using MSO-supplied wireless routers violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Courthouse News Service reports. Cablevision sets up its homespots “Optimum Smart Routers" that are provided to residential high-speed Internet customers at no charge; customers do have the option to purchase and use their own WiFi routers. 

The class action suit, filed by July 16 by lead plaintiff Paul Jensen, claims that Cablevision didn’t ask for his consent to use the router as a quasi-public hotspot, and asserts that the practice compromises his Internet speed, puts him at a greater security risk, and also increases his electricity costs, the report added.

"Engineers at Speedify, a technology company offering services to increase customers' Internet connection speeds, have run tests on routers supplied to residential customers, which broadcast secondary Wi-Fi networks - exactly like those Cablevision supplies to its customers to establish its Optimum Wi-Fi Hotspots," the complaint says. "The purpose of the tests was to determine whether such equipment used more electricity than comparable equipment that was not emitting a second Wi-Fi network." With respect to the electricity-focused complaint, the suit points to tests conducted by Speedify that found that devices that host and emit secondary signals use more juice than those that don’t.

Jensen also contends that Cablevision, which launched a WiFi-only phone service called Freewheel in February, told him that the homespot feature could not be turned off, and that his only other option was to buy a wireless router at retail.

Cablevision stood by its approach.

“Our customers love having access to Optimum WiFi both in and out of the home, and this frivolous lawsuit appears to be the result of plaintiffs’ attorneys looking for something to do,” Cablevision said, in a statement. “For more than 40 years, privacy and security have been of paramount importance to Cablevision, and all Optimum WiFi access points provide both convenient and secure wireless broadband connections for our customers.”

Comcast, meanwhile, is facing an almost identical lawsuit that was filed in December 2014 -- the same attorneys are involved in both legal actions. In the pending Comcast case, the plaintiffs are also seeking class action status, and are also arguing that Comcast’s homespot approach violates the U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The suit also cites tests conducted by Speedify (this blog post sums up Speedify’s position on the use of homespots).

Comcast homespots are currently set up as “opt-out,” meaning that DOCSIS gateways that are part of the deployment emit the secondary SSID by default. Comcast is fighting that challenge, holding that it provides information to customers about the service and how they can turn off the public WiFi hotspot if they wish.

Gearing up for its go-to-market phase, virtual CPE startup Benu Networks has added Liberty Global Ventures and Arris Group as strategic investors, and has hired a new CEO, Dino Di Palma.

On the funding front, Liberty Global Ventures and Arris Group have sweetened a $27.7 million “B” round that adds to the $26.6 million announced by Benu in September. Spark Capital, Sutter Hill Ventures and Comcast Ventures also participated in the round.

Di Palma, who served as the COO of Acme Packet prior to its $2.1 billion acquisition by Oracle in February 2013, started his new post at Benu about three weeks ago and is coming on board to ramp up the company’s go-to-market phase.

He said his top priorities are to extend Benu’s market presence as it looks to achieve global reach, ramp up the Benu’s operations, and to tightly define the company’s virtual CPE platform.

As for Arris’s role, he views the vendor “as a very strong candidate” to help Benu expand globally.

While Di Palma takes over the day-to-day operations of Benu, the company’s former CEO, Dave Callan, is staying on board to drive the technology strategy of the company, and drive the company’s two-to-three year outlook.

Benu, founded in 2010, counts execs from a wide range of cable and telecom vendors, including RiverDelta Networks (sold to Motorola in 2001), Cisco Systems, Arris, and Ciena. It has been developing a “virtual” service edge platform that tucks the management and brains of services into the proverbial cloud. By decoupling the control and data plane, the company believes, operators can gain unprecedented visibility into the set-tops, modems, tablets and other devices on their own access networks, as well as those run by others.

The first application from Benu is the Wireless Access Gateway,  which is already in use by a yet-unnamed major U.S. cable operator to manage and authenticate the national deployment of a “community” WiFi service that programs an additional, public-facing SSID (service set identifier) in millions of homebound DOCSIS-powered wireless gateways.

Benu hasn’t identified that partner, but Comcast and Cablevision Systems are among the domestic operators that have ramped up their “homespot” deployments. Two of Benu’s investors – Comcast and Liberty Global -- recently announced a WiFi roaming agreement.

“Benu’s innovative solution will allow operators to deliver services and manage policies on a user and device level irrespective of access type. This approach opens up a range of new business opportunities in terms of service innovation, delivery cost, and velocity” said Dan Hennessy, chief architecture officer at Liberty Global, in a statement.

“Liberty Global Ventures invests in companies which provide high strategic value to the cable industry, and we are excited to work with the Benu team to deliver innovation around Wi-Fi and Cloud,” added Ankur Prakash, VP of Liberty Global Ventures.

Billerica, Mass.-based Benu has more than 120 employees, and has operations in India, the U.K. and Spain.