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Comment by PeterStuer | Hacker News Reader

Adding 5G today increases the BOM by 10$-30$ in volume production.

Keep in mind that the tv already has ethernet and wifi to ISP controlled networks. Basically almost every consumer ISP offer mandatory includes an ISP managed gateway, that can pre-certify your appliances or operate hidden ssid networks or "public" wifi access point to the ISP's network. So "smart" appliance operators only need deals with a few big ISPs to get this reach, no 5G required.

With less than a dozens deals you would cover most of the US and EU.

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I fathom with 5G RedCap you can drive a low cost BOM and pair it with a "reduced capacity" yet still fairly moderate speed (up to 100mbps) 5G service.

Market the 5G as "always connected" to the customer. Free 720p streaming, a "plus" OTT platform that costs $10/mo that gives 1080p streaming over cellular (and 4K on traditional internet - advertise the 5g as a backup in this case).

Ads sold at an upcharge to the advertiser to reach the "always targetable" smart TV. Hit 'em hard with the ads to pay it.

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/devices/tcl-and-t-mobile-launc...

T-Mo's already running RedCap in the states, so it's a matter of time...

> Basically almost every consumer ISP offer mandatory includes an ISP managed gateway

Is that really true? I never thought Internet subscriptions would require use of ISP's own device. I for sure have been using my own DSL modem/router/wlan device for my own connections (EU).

East Coast US here, I can bring my own cable modem with any cable ISP I have had in the past 10 years.

I imagine fiber is a different story.

Well, yes and no.

Providers are (I believe) required to let you bring your own equipment. Every DSL or cable service I've seen has allowed this.

However, it is also required that the modem you plug into the network accepts and runs firmware provided solely by the network operator. They can update your device at any time and there's nothing you can do about it.

So yeah, you can run your own hardware if you want, but the ISP will run their software on it whether you like it or not.

Definitely not the case. How would the firmware even end up in the device, which protocol delivers it? And which ISP would have the expertise to patch a collection of random devices in the network?

See TR-069

Thanks for the pointer, today is another day when I'm learning something new.

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