Usually, lack of news means adoption is low. Freewheel costs $30 a month for customers who are not buying Cablevision high speed access, but only $10 a month for consumers who do buy Optimum Online broadband services.
Unlike all other similar commercial services, Freewheel uses Wi-Fi connections exclusively. That means its potential is limited mostly to people who do not require connectivity when out and about, and not in range of a suitable Wi-Fi connection.
Cablevision has suggested that includes users who are on college campuses, or who expect usage to be at home or indoors at work.
Since then, we also have seen the launch of Google Fi, which uses the more-typical Wi-Fi-first approach, with a switch to mobile networks when a suitable local Wi-Fi connection is not available.
There are no more details on Google Fi adoption, either. It wouldn’t be surprising if both services suffered from early hiccups. In part, that is because the approach is new enough that most consumers will not immediately understand how to use the service fluidly.
Cablevision is unlikely to drive broader trends industrywide, and especially since its acquisition by Altice, it might not be too surprising if the effort got less attention or support than it might otherwise have gotten.
Project Fi, on the other hand, could have substantial impact, not based on its subscriber totals, but as a way to reset consumer expectations about how much mobile data should cost, or how easy it should be for signals to switch seamlessly between Wi-Fi and mobile.
And Google suggested early demand was above expectations.
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