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Starry Poaches Assurant Wireless CFO Bien

daniel.frankel@futurenet.com (Daniel Frankel) — Tue, 28 May 2019 18:51:07 +0000

As he once again looks to disrupt the telecom business, this time with a fixed wireless play, former Aereo chief executive Chet Kanojia has a new CFO.

His new Boston-based technology company, Starry, has just poached Gregg Bien from Assurant Wireless. Bien, who has also worked for AT&T and Disney, will lead the financial future of a startup which has raised more than $250 million to date.

“Starry is in a period of explosive growth,” Kanojia said, in a statement. “We have more than doubled our headcount in the last year and have expanded our network footprint coverage to pass more than 1.5 million households. Bringing Gregg in at this juncture will be critical to maintaining this pace of growth and maintaining the financial discipline that has enabled this success. Gregg is a proven financial leader who understands how to drive success in this industry. We’re thrilled to welcome him to Starry.”

Launching in beta back in 2016, Starry was the first company to commercially deploy pre-standard 5G, point-to-multipoint fixed wireless technology to deliver gigabit-capable broadband to the home.

In addition to Boston, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, New York City and Denver, Starry will also expand its service to 17 additional markets over the next year including: Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Dallas, Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami, Memphis, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Manchester, NH, Portland, OR, and Sioux Falls, SD.

Need to Know: Cable Is Wired for 5G

Jeff Baumgartner — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 12:00:00 +0000

5G may be the hottest thing in wireless and mobile technology, but the new standard needs one thing more than any other: wires, and lots of them.

For the cable industry, 5G offers a huge opportunity for new fixed and mobile wireless services, using cable’s core asset: endless miles of wires in the form of hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) architecture and a growing mix of fiber-only pipes. Optical fiber cable are thin strands of glass that carry massive volumes of data with light signals and minimum loss, and coaxial cable is the traditional lines cable operators use to deliver video, voice and data services to most customers.

Need to Know:5G — Riding Wireless’s Next Wave

HFC “is an excellent vehicle for that because it provides power, right of way and backhaul for all of that small-cell radio equipment,” Craig Cowden, vice president of wireless technology at Charter Communications, said during a recent webinar on the topic hosted by CableLabs. “Whether we’re talking inside the home or outside the home, we believe cable is going to be the first truly scalable fixed mobile convergence platform.”

In other words, it may be a wireless network, but it’s going to need a lot of cells, and those cells need to be connected a wired network, including the kind that cable can provide.

Low Latency Needed

But in order to make that work across cable’s mix of fiber-only and HFC networks, operators need a low-latency solution. The cable industry is taking aim at that with a proposed technique called the “Bandwidth Report” (BWR), which aims to deliver super-low latencies by extending a technical bridge between cable’s high-speed DOCSIS network (used today for cable modem service) and 4G/LTE and “pipelining” the upstream packet schedulers of both sides.

Recent trials of BWR conducted by CableLabs and Cisco Systems showed that “DOCSIS is well positioned as a viable backhaul technology for LTE,” John Chapman, a fellow at Cisco and chief technology officer of the company’s Cable Access unit, proclaimed.

Cable operators are particularly interested in a 150 Megahertz-wide batch of spectrum known as Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), which resides in the historically underutilized range of 3.55 Gigahertz to 3.7 GHz.

“The 3.5-GHz band remains an important component of Charter’s wireless strategy,” the MSO told the FCC in a recent filing. Charter noted that it has been able to produce speeds of at least 25 Megabits per second downstream and 3 Mbps upstream in the so-called CBRS band tests being conducted in rural areas.

“Charter is certainly looking at that [CBRS] as a potential small cell technology that we would deploy both in the home and outdoors,” Cowden said on the CableLabs webinar.

Samsung, whose 5G gear has received FCC approval, is working with Charter on trials.

Charter Communications is testing 5G-based technology in at least six markets with technology partners such as Samsung Electronics: Orlando, Fla.; Reno, Nev.; Clarksville, Tenn.; Columbus, Ohio; Bakersfield, Calif.; and Grand Rapids, Mich.

Comcast, meanwhile, has also asked the FCC for permission to conduct tests using the CBRS band in the Philadelphia area.

Other rival 5G tests underway:

• AT&T has been testing pre-standard 5G fixed wireless in Austin and Waco, Texas; Kalamazoo, Mich.; and South Bend, Ind., and intends to introduce mobile 5G-based service in 12 markets by late 2018.

• Verizon Communications plans to launch 5G-based residential broadband service in four markets in 2018, including Los Angeles and Sacramento, Calif. Verizon estimates that the markets included in that initial launch will span some 30 million homes.

• T-Mobile is accelerating its 600 MHz rollout this year, setting the stage for initial launches in 2019 and a nationwide 5G network by 2020.

• Sprint plans to launch a mobile 5G network in the first half of 2019 leaning on its portfolio of 2.5 GHz spectrum.

• Starry is using millimeter wave spectrum to deliver an uncapped, symmetrical 200 Mbps service in parts of Boston, with beta offerings available in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Other markets on Starry’s launch list include New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami and Minneapolis.

Need to Know:5G — Riding Wireless’s Next Wave

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CES 2018: Starry, Marvell Partnership Gets Fix on 5G

Jeff Baumgartner — Mon, 08 Jan 2018 22:25:00 +0000

Starry, the wireless broadband startup, and chipmaker Marvell have teamed on a tech partnership that aims to accelerate the deployment of 5G-based fixed wireless services.

Under the plan, Starry will combine its pre-standard 5G system focused on millimeter wave spectrum and smart antenna tech with Marvell’s 802.11ax chips.

The collaboration, they said, will focus in two areas – a “blueprint”/reference design for Starry’s millimeter wave, point-to-multipoint fixed broadband transceivers (the last mile in Starry’s infrastructure) that integrate Marvell’s 802.11ax chipsets; and a cloud-based internet and WiFi network monitoring platform that will tie into every node of the network and check performance of base stations and receivers as well as in-home WiFi hubs.

Starry and Marvell expect both to become available in mid-2018. Elements of that handiwork will be on display at Marvell’s suite at this week’s CES in Las Vegas.

They hold that the partnership will broaden the technology ecosystem with near-term implications while pivoting away from pre-standard 5G tech that is being developed in “silos.”

It also helps Starry tighten its ties to WiFi, as the companies note that the bulk of the world’s mobile cellular internet traffic is served via WiFi from fixed networks.

The partnership takes hold the week after Starry launched a symmetrical 200 Mbps service in Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., (initially in beta form), that follow a commercial deployment already underway in Boston. Starry is selling the data cap-free service for $50-per month.

They claim that the arrangement will lower the cost of entry into the market.

“When we started Starry, our goal from the beginning was to drive down the cost of deploying broadband, from the cost of equipment to speed of deployment. And we have been successful at achieving both,” Chet Kanojia, Starry’s CEO and co-founder said in a statement. “The barrier to entry in the market today – whether domestic or global – is cost. That’s why you see so few people willing to challenge incumbent monopolies. We saw 5G as an opportunity for a new ecosystem of access technologies and products to emerge – but felt that it could only happen if the barrier to entry was low.”

In an interview last week, Kanojia said that Starry and its high speed/no data cap approach has been particularly appealing to cord-cutters and cord-nevers.

Median consumption of the service is 450 GB per month in the early going, with to top 20% of Starry subscribers consuming between 600 GB to 1.6 terabytes of data per month.

More insight into Starry’s market learnings in the early going will be featured in the Platforms section of the January 15 issues of Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable.

Starry Launches 200-Meg Wireless Broadband Service in L.A., Washington, D.C.

Jeff Baumgartner — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 15:35:00 +0000

Starry, the startup that has developed a competitive broadband service that uses millimeter wave technologies, said it has launched a beta version of its 200 Mbps offering in parts of Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

Those launches expand on Starry’s earlier beta service debut in the Boston area.

Update: Starry said service is available in "select areas" of Washington, D.C, and Los Angeles, but expects to expand there similar to how it has broadened its rollout in Boston, which started as a closed beta and is now passing more than 240,000 homes.

Starry said it expects to launch service in more than a dozen new markets in 2018. Markets launches on deck for this year include New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami and Minneapolis, the company said.

Starry’s service is based on pre-standard 5G technology that uses a point-to-multipoint fixed wireless platform to deliver broadband in millimeter wave spectrum.

Starry holds that its platform can support gigabit-class speeds, though its initial offering delivers symmetrical speeds of 200 Mbps. Starry is selling that service, which is free of contracts and data caps, for $50 per month, and includes the Starry Station, a touchscreen WiFi hub.

Starry’s architecture includes the Starry Beam (a network node) that delivers connectivity to an on-premises transceiver called the Starry Point that works in conjunction with the in-home Starry Station. Starry also touted that its service includes 24/7 customer care.

RELATED: Starry Eyes Wireless Broadband Alternative

“When we founded Starry, we set out to be different. We knew we could develop and build a new and innovative broadband network, but we also wanted to deliver on a superior customer experience,” Chet Kanojia, Starry’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “We take the privilege of being in your home and being your family’s ISP very seriously. From the way our customer care and installation team interacts with you, to our pledge to never throttle, block, or pick and choose what content you access, when we pledged to build a better internet, we meant it.”

In addition to grappling with traditional wired broadband providers, Starry will also be contending with major carriers, including Verizon Communications and AT&T, that are also preparing to launch 5G-based fixed wireless broadband service.

According to a recent analysis by MoffettNathanson, Starry’s best shot at disrupting the broadband sector will be by pairing deployments in high-density areas with a low-cost technology platform.

The FCC under both the current chairman, Ajit Pai, and former chairman, Tom Wheeler, has been working to open up more spectrum above 24 GHZ--and elsewhere--to promote competitive, next gen, broadband services.

The FCC in November took another step to promote high-frequency spectrum innovative new by voting to make an additional 1,700 MHz of millimeter wave spectrum available for 5G and declining to cap the amount of spectrum in the 24 GHz and 47 GHz bands a bidder can buy at auction.

Higher-speed wireless broadband services also work toward Pai's regulatory theory that wireless is providing competitive broadband speeds and can be considered a competitive option. That theory of choice is key to his net neutrality rule rollback proposal, which presumes that competition allows for different business models from which to choose.

In the wake of the ISP reg rollback, Starry pledged not to prioritize, block, cap or throttle content.

--John Eggerton contributed to this story

Starry's Service Starts at $50 Per Month

Jeff Baumgartner — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 16:52:00 +0000

Starry, the startup that has developed a competitive broadband service that uses millimeter wave technology, confirmed that a beta version of the service is available to parts of Boston for $50 per month and delivers symmetrical speed of 200 Mbps.

Starry’s Boston-area beta offering, spotted by Light Reading, is being sold without a contract or extra equipment rental fees, and includes a customer care service that will help customers connect devices and troubleshoot WiFi or other issues.

RELATED: Starry Eyes Wireless Broadband Alternative

According to a Starry official, the company is currently focused on the multiple-dwelling unit (MDU) market in Boston, noting that the company has developed versions of the Starry Point, the unit that receives the signal and communications with the Starry Station WiFi hub, that can handle a range of use cases, including large and small MDUs as well as for single-family units.

In the MDU scenarios, Starry is leaning primarily on existing, in-building wiring to connect the Starry Station, though there are some cases in which Starry will do its own wiring, the official noted.

Interested customers can query the Starry site to see if service is available to them. Starry is currently available in parts of Charlestown, Somerville and Cambridge and a handful of other neighborhoods in the Boston area.

“We’re bringing additional neighborhoods online in the next few weeks,” the official said via email, noting that Starry recently made the beta service more widely available.

Comcast, RCN and Verizon are among the incumbent broadband providers Starry will likely tangle with in Boston.

Starry is helmed by former Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia.

RELATED: Aereo Auction Raises Less Than $2 Million

According to a recent analysis by MoffettNathanson, Starry’s best shot at disrupting the broadband sector will be by pairing deployments in high-density areas with a low-cost technology platform.

“On paper, at least, fixed wireless has the potential to be the first low-cost alternative to wired broadband,” the firm explained, noting that AT&T and Verizon are already moving in that direction with 5G-focused trials. Google Fiber is also pursuing wireless as a lower-cost alternative.

RELATED: Google Fiber's Webpass Debuts in Denver

Low Costs, Dense Markets Critical to Starry’s Success: Analyst

Jeff Baumgartner — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 15:39:00 +0000

Starry, the startup helmed by former Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia that intends to put the hurt on incumbent broadband service providers with a wireless platform that relies on millimeter wave technology, has a shot at success and can become a market disruptor, if it’s able to pair deployments in high-density areas with a low-cost technology platform.

That’s according to a new report from Craig Moffett, analyst with MoffettNathanson, who recently spent a day with Starry in Boston, its headquarters and the site of its initial beta trial.

RELATED: Starry Eyes Wireless Broadband Alternative

“On paper, at least, fixed wireless has the potential to be the first low-cost alternative to wired broadband,” Moffett wrote, noting that AT&T and Verizon are already moving in that direction with 5G-focused trials. Google Fiber, meanwhile, is pursuing wireless as a lower-cost alternative.

With Boston, Starry is already focused on a high-density market (Starry plans to deploy across 17 metro areas if the trial in Beantown is successful), but its next key target, Moffett said, is driving down the technology costs.

With “all-in” costs for a base station at about $25,000 (comprised of a three-sector cell site where each “Starry Beam” costs $7,000 to $8000), the total cost to pass a home in a market like Boston could go as low as $10.

But Starry, which will also be saddled with tower rental costs estimated to be at $350 to $400 per month, is also focusing on cutting the costs of the customer premises equipment -- from about $1,000 today, to perhaps $200 per home.

“With costs that low, they [Starry] could profitably offer competitive broadband speeds for a fraction of the current price of wired broadband,” Moffett wrote, adding that service penetration will also be a “critical driver.”

Moffett said Starry’s ideal density for its build-out are areas with greater than 1,000 homes per square mile. The area it’s focused on in Boston, at 2,500-plus, soundly beats that target.

Using a cost model of $10 per home in an area of that density, Moffett said the all-in cost would be in the range of $33 per month, assuming a $500 piece of CPE, or $24, assuming a $200 piece of CPE.

Using a 5% penetration for 2,500 homes per square mile, it’s not “cheap enough to be compelling,” Moffett said.

But, at a 10% penetration, the all-in monthly costs for the $200 CPE case falls to $19 per month, and the $100 CPE case drops to just $16 in total costs per month.

“The key takeaway here is that low costs are everything,” Moffett wrote, noting that the current cost curves will require Starry initially focus on multiple-dwelling units, where it can amortize the costs over a minimum of three to four customers.

Moffett also shared some other details about Starry, which now has about 100 employees, has raised roughly $63 million, and hopes to pass about 500,000 homes in Boston this year and to focus initially on non-overbuilt parts of the city.

RELATED: Starry Lands $30M ‘B’ Round

The technology will rely on a “near line-of-sight,” point-to-multipoint system, and the company said the plan is to work with inexpensive spectrum, and not necessarily only unlicensed spectrum. Its platform uses LTE for out-of-band control and channel monitoring, Moffett explained.

For the trial, Starry is rate-limiting customers, with most end-points running at 200 Mbps in the downstream and upstream direction. Moffett said he also saw test speeds in excess of 200 Mbps down from distances of more than 1 kilometer from the tower.

Starry, he said, is expecting low single digit penetration rates, but is seeing a much higher rate (in the range of 20% to 25%, and up to 50% in extreme cases) in its deployed buildings.

Starry currently isn’t charging customers for the trial and has not announced what its future pricing is, though Moffett said the company did mention price points as high as $50 per month or as low as $20, and that Starry intends to reduce friction with a self-install model.

But keeping the baseline expenses manageable will be key, as the costs for market entry have proven to be too steep for some would be broadband competitors.

“And that’s exactly what makes 5G fixed wireless so interesting…or, if you are a cable investor, so scary,” Moffett wrote.

Cable operators are also looking at 5G as an alternative way to deliver broadband service into the home and see the backhaul requirements for 5G as a major business opportunity.

But some MSOs are also downplaying the competitive threat that 5G presents as a fixed wireless alternative to broadband service when used in lofty frequency ranges.

“I don't believe, at this stage…that it's a significant threat in regards to the wireless fixed broadband side,” Dave Watson, Comcast Cable’s president and CEO, said Thursday on the company’s Q1 earnings call.

Starry Lands $30M ‘B’ Round

Jeff Baumgartner — Mon, 19 Dec 2016 14:20:00 +0000

Starry, the wireless broadband startup led by former Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia, has raised a $30 million “B” round that brings its total funding to $63 million, the company confirmed.

RELATED: Starry Eyes Wireless Broadband Alternative

The startup disclosed a $30 million raise in this SEC filing dated Dec. 16. In January, Starry announced backers that included FirstMark Capital, Tiger Global, IAC, KKR, HLVP and Quantum Strategic Partners, but did not say how much funding it had raised at the time.

Kanojia, who tried to disrupt the pay TV industry with Aereo, which went bankrupt and lost its case against several major broadcasters, is now turning his eyes toward broadband with a wireless broadband service that’s aiming to deliver speeds up to 1-Gig using millimeter wave technology. Starry's service will not be saddled with data caps.

RELATED: Supremes Rule Against Aereo

Starry also confirmed that it is conducting a closed beta in Boston, with plans to expand that toward the end of Q1 2017. That expansion and deployment in Boston is expected to continue for the next several months in anticipation of deployments outside of Boston in a handful of cities by the end of 2017.

Ahead of a commercial debut, Starry is selling a WiFi router with a 3.8-inch touchscreen for $249.99, already reduced from an originally announced retail price of $349.99. Per the Starry site, the device is available directly through the company or via outlets such as Amazon, Best Buy and B&H.

Former Google Fiber Exec Joins Starry

Jeff Baumgartner — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 14:45:00 +0000

Starry, the fixed-wireless broadband startup helmed by former Aereo founder Chet Kanojia, said it has hired former Google exec Kristen Morrissey Thiede to senior vice president of business development and corporate strategy.

Thiede will lead the business development and corporate strategy for Starry as it looks to build and expand its fixed wireless broadband network nationally and globally, and will also head up developing partnerships and alliances aimed at spurring growth.

Thiede most recently served as an advisor at Metamorphic Ventures, a New York City-based venture capital firm and, before that, spent 14 years at Google, leading business development and content licensing for Google Fiber and early stage efforts such as Google.org's Crisis response team to Haiti, Chile, and Pakistan, and the launch of AdSense for Content and distribution efforts globally.

"We are thrilled to welcome Kristen to Starry, where her skills and experience will have a positive impact on day one," Kanojia said in a statement. "Kristen knows firsthand the challenges in building a broadband network and her experience and success with Google Fiber is a tremendous asset as we build out Starry Internet here in the U.S. and abroad. Our millimeter wave technology offers unlimited opportunities for growth, and we're excited for Kristen to help lead our expansion efforts."

"I've always been driven to take on big challenges," Thiede said, in a statement. "The Starry team is led by world class engineers developing some of the most innovative connectivity technologies in the market today. Starry's development of an active phased array for millimeter waves is a game-changer that has the potential to solve connectivity challenges around the world. I'm excited to be a part of a passionate team of technologists willing to push big ideas and innovative technology forward."

Thiede holds a BA in political science from the University of the South. She was also identified as a Woman to Watch in 2015 by Multichannel News.

Starry is developing a fixed-wireless broadband service that will rely on millimeter wave technology, a platform that, it claims, can deliver speeds of up to 1 Gbps. The company, which has also introduced the Starry Station, a $349.99 WiFi-capable hub that features a 3.8-inch touchscreen. Starry expects to launch a beta of its Internet service in Boston this summer, and will add more cities to the mix throughout the year.