Motorola's Jha says cellphone won't end cable soon

Motorola Mobility chief Sanjay Jha during his time on stage at the Cable Show on Thursday downplayed the prospect that cellular data would kill cable Internet or TV anytime soon. In part referring to Comcast's gigabit cable demo at the same session, Jha didn't believe that every Internet need could be handled by cellular alone. Technologies like LTE-based 4G, which can hit 50Mbps peak in the real world, wouldn't have enough bandwidth to handle 1080p video or other very network-intense tasks.

Wired Internet access would still be the hub for a "long time to come," he said.

He added that wireless spectrum in the US was "very limited" and put a cap on what cellular carriers could do. Still, he saw it as disruptive for some kinds of activities and brought up the subject of tablets and on-demand Internet streaming, a common thread at the trade show.

Jha's comments may have been made partly to placate cable providers nervous about becoming obsolete and who would be talking to Motorola Solutions, the other half of Motorola from the corporate split in January. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts insisted TV could remain relevant if it was made to feel comparable to other services. Large numbers were still buying new TVs, he said.

Nielsen has noted in a recent study that traditional TV is still seeing significant demand but that mobile video demand has shot up 41 percent in the past year. A significant number of the youngest viewers, under 34 years old, are more likely to either stream a large part of their video online or in rare cases drop TV entirely.

By Electronista Staff