Fully wireless?

Their Fibe TV currently has wireless slave units.

How do any of the units get the iPTV Service, from a Router?

Why would this phase out Sat Service?

In remote parts of Canada I doubt you will get any kind of Internet capable of iPTV Services of any kind.

 

This does make some sense. Wireless carriers have an excess of bandwidth in rural areas. Residents in those areas would benefit the most from things like wireless TV over LTE. Bell may launch a wireless TV service for areas that are well served by LTE. Unfortunately, Bell doesn't even have the capacity for wireless internet in all areas since they abandoned their plans to roll it out. The infrastructure for a Bell TV replacement service does not presently exists so it will not happen soon.

 

As much as Bell & Shaw D are suffering with outdated & old equipment they are only hurting themselves by not updating like the rest of the providers in Canada, focusing on Fibe that is available to 2 provinces if we are lucky seems like a good way for Bell to shoot themselves in the foot. You'd think that they would want to be on the cutting edge of technology with Satellite service(which is very easy to achieve thanks to the H3), but unless these new wireless boxes can be used coast to coast I don't see Satellite going away just yet.

 

I have a hard time beliving satellite will be phased out very soon. There are quite a few ppl I know who live in areas not serviced by Bell Fibe, so satellite providers like Shaw and Bell are the only thing available to them at this time. I know Bell offers wireless receivers for its IPTV service this is old news but fully wireless?? Fully wireless can mean anything. I have not heard of that secondly we do not know what they mean by that, will it work over cellular (LTE), or will it run over public wifi? Or will it be a different protocol/technology? I dont think neither of these will be as reliable nor robust as its current wireless IPTV service. Care to enlighten us on what technology they might use and if so what are the benefits? I can already watch live bell tv on my tablet when im in a hotel or coffee shop or travelling, but if im having quality issues Bell can not guarentee reliable signal because im using someone elses network to stream to my tablet. Will this also be the case with the "Fully Wireless" thing u mentioned?

 

Here is a link to the story check it out BCE plans wireless IPTV launch, reports steady Q2 profit - Business - CBC News.

 

As described, this wireless IPTV product will use wi-fi over a high speed internet connection. A high speed Bell FTTN or FTTH connection will be required, as for Fibe TV. This wireless product will probably be s step down for current Fibe TV customers as it could cause congestion on their wi-fi and LAN. It won't affect the Bell TV satellite product as there are still many Canadians who don't have Fibe internet, even in Bell's service area, and many more outside Bell's service area who cannot.

 

Eliminating Bell satellite would effectively double Shaw Direct's customer base. Shaw Direct would be the only reliable way for truly rural Canadians to receive multiple TV channels. Internet speeds are too slow for HDTV (especially to 2 or 3 TVs) in most of these communities. Good news for Shaw!

 

@cyclist44 I found the same story in the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal earlier. (The article is by The Canadian Press.) The article wasn't well-written and you jumped to a giant conclusion. All Bell is doing is introducing a wireless Fibe PVR to complement their existing wireless Fibe STBs, allowing everything to communicate to the router without installing any cabling. This won't change Bell satellite.

Here's what Bell actually said in their press release:

Fibe innovation: wireless 4K PVR, powerful new Home Hub
Delivering TV and Internet features available from no one else has been key to Bell's growing leadership in the residential marketplace. This month, Bell will deliver 2 new products that sharpen our broadband innovation edge further still. Bell will be the first TV provider in the world to offer a completely wireless IPTV installation with the wireless 4K PVR for Fibe TV. With the flexibility to locate Fibe TV anywhere in your home with minimal install time, the Fibe 4K PVR will also be the first in Canada to integrate the 4K Netflix app. Also available this month is the Home Hub 3000 modem, featuring a throughput capability of 1 gigabit per second and 3 times the power of the current Home Hub model, providing the fastest and broadest home Wi-Fi coverage available.

 

This all fine and dandy, but if you can't receive 4K in your neighborhood, these new boxes and service won't mean a thing to those that have Bell Sat or Bell Fibe. Until all of Bell subs can receive 4K service all these new receivers won't mean a thing to the majority of Bell Fibe subscribers or Sat subscribers?

 

That is the same with any new technology out there MCIBUS, only the few can get it initially. 4K is OK, that is what it should be called IMHO, as the content is not there yet, so it is not a big deal.

Need 4K content, that is cheap enough then will come 4K STB's, bought by many, not just a few, then we can all enjoy the High Picture Quality of pimples on faces, not just the few.

So, this thread is, as I expected, wrong, time to lock it out, there have to be other threads about 4K, Bell vs Shaw and Fibe Wireless STB's......

Move along, just another scare story about Bell TV.

 

Thanks Dr.Dave for posting that snippet and other members as well. I had a feeling the op misinterpreted the news article and am happy that satellite aint going no where. All it basically stated was the PVR (4k) will now become wireless too, where as before it needed to be hardwired to the modem. This is what they mean by "fully wireless" I stand correct.

 

There will be sat customer losses as cable reaches more and more rural people. We have a few thousand homes spread out over many miles and Shaw is offering us 150Mbps internet. So the satellite users here are disappearing. But as said a bit above, nothing to do with the linked story.

 

To amplify on exdilbert's comment, I live just a few kms. from the capital of PEI and I can't get fibe from Bell Aliant. Those of you who live in larger centres may get a false idea of how widespread 4K tech. is when in fact it isn't. I doubt that it ever will be a major player simply because it offers an only incremental improvement over standard HD and is just a placeholder on the way to even higher resolutions.

It's the same for those of you who advocate OTA and cable cutting. Unless you live in S. Ontario and maybe S. BC, there simply aren't enough OTA channels available to make OTA either practical or desirable. It too is a non-starter.

 

Here is the link to the Canadian Press article that appeared in The Brandon Sun and my local newspaper. This is the article that prompted my starting this thread.

This is the link: BCE plans wireless IPTV launch this month, reports steady second quarter profit - Brandon Sun

 

I don't know if Bell Sat will be shut down or not, but I suspect not?

But here's another twist to this? How does Telus fit into this? Since Telus from my understanding sells/operates Bell Sat out west(some one correct me if I'm wrong here) By shutting down BTV(which I dought)would not this effect Teus as well?

 

To my knowledge Telus has nothing to do with Bell Satellite. The only thing the do is have a contract for sharing cell towers across Canada. In each central office Bell has a small room for their local business. That's it.

 

Exactly;

in an effort to boost its IPTV offering

Not in an attempt to get rid of the Dish....

 

Telus does have an agreement with Bell to sell Satellite TV in BC and Alberta under the Telus name with Telus branded receivers etc.

 

As I stated earlier, There are plenty of people I know who live in parts of Ontario where there is NO IPTV nor Cable TV offered. Satellite is the only way to go. And for the longest time they did not have proper access to High Speed Broadband either, until lately, and even then, its not adequate enough to use for streaming tv service. Satellite TV is their ONLY choice for Entertainment, and that should not be taken away nor shut down because of this.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Bell sells or merges with Shaw like XM Sirius.Another possibility would be selling to Telus.They aren't updating equipment and seem to have little interest in Satellite technology since they have put most of their efforts in Fibe technology
.

 

Please don't take this the wrong way but I can't believe how many "glass half empty" people frequent this forum. It's almost as if you want bad things to happen so that you can say "I told you so".

 

Canada has only enough population to support one satellite service. Bell and Shaw consumer satellite services only survived because they were subsidized for many years by the parent companies and their other operations. Shaw Direct was run on a shoestring budget for years and Bell TV has been for the past 5 years or so. Upgrades and updates will be few and far between. It's getting worse by the year as fibre networks and IPTV roll out and become increasingly more popular than satellite.

If anything happens with Bell and Shaw, one will sell or shut down their satellite division. I wouldn't be surprised if Bell already tried to sell and there were no takers. Merging them would be an extremely costly venture with diminishing returns due to a shrinking market. Technology will eventually make satellite TV obsolete in all but remote areas and unprofitable to maintain.

If anything happens with Bell and Telus, Bell will try to purchase Telus. Whether that will pass CRTC revue is debatable.

 

Our population is much larger than New Zealand's and their Sky Satellite Television Service is very popular. Last year Sky had 705,652 satellite subscribers and 79,936 OTT subscribers, making it the largest pay television platform in New Zealand and their population is 4,850,640.

Likewise, Foxtel Satellite television in Australia (population 24,791,400 about 70% of our population) has proven to be a far more feasible option than cable television, perhaps due to the vast distances between population centres, (although Canada, which also has large distances between population centres, has a relatively high cable television penetration rate).

These 2 examples prove that large countries, like ours, with sparse populations, can run profitable satellite TV services. I would think that our country will support both Bell and Shaw satellite services for many years to come.

 

As well, Canadian Satellite providers tag onto satellites used in the U.S. - where New Zealand and Australia have a smaller populations to share satellites.

I feel that ANZ channels also produce a lot more local content then our channels.

 

Why would Bell add more local channels in SD and HD if they were selling or thinking of going FIBE only.

I just wish they would shut down all SD channels. Who watches SD in 2018?

 

There are a lot of areas in Canada that will never see Bell Fibe.

 

@NovaMan, Australia is a good comparison to Canada in population and demographics. It only has one satellite service though. Having two satellite services has hurt both companies and the level of service they provide. Shaw Direct was substandard for many years and has only recently caught up. Bell satellite lost money for many years and has been put on "hold" for the past few years in order to stem losses for a service that had reached saturation and has since lost customers and stagnated. Neither service compares with the US that has two very vibrant satellite services that continue to innovate and expand. Bell's partnership with Dish has resulted in Bell selling off resources (that rightly belong to Canadians) to Dish for "considerations." It is no longer generating tangible benefits for Canadian satellite customers. Having a single satellite service in Canada would most likely result in a more vibrant, more progressive satellite service for all Canadians.

Canadian satellite services will continue to shrink in popularity. The Canadian government has an ongoing project to connect remote regions using fibre technology. While it is true that there will always be remote areas that are not served by fibre or cable, Canada is becoming increasingly urban in nature and satellite is losing population in those areas. Satellite has a better chance of surviving with just one provider. It's not a question of if one of the existing two will be shut down, just when. Neither Shaw or Bell will support a money losing division indefinitely. In the meantime, inadequate investment in both services will drive customers away.