Wish you had more options for home internet? Soon your local TV station may use its over-the-air (OTA) TV ability to offer you high-speed internet. This all comes as GAIAN Solutions and ARK Multicasting have launched a joint venture to launch the nationals largest broadcast internet network to over 30% of the country. To do this, it will use the ATSC 3.0 Nextgen TV standard to offer wireless internet.
ARK already works with 300 television stations around the country. It hopes to use these 300 television stations to use some of their OTA spectrum to offer high-speed internet.
“We are shopping for partners in other markets, as the potential for growth and reach is tremendous, and the opportunity for all television broadcasters who partner is unmatched by existing models” said Joshua Weiss, CEO of ARK.
“In the explosive and rapidly changing world of AI-based digital solutions, the Mobius platform brings light-speed capabilities to envision, engineer and launch applications leveraging the NextGenTV network,” said Chandra Kotaru of GAIAN, which has developed Mobius, a Low Code AI-enabled Digital Transformation as a Service (DTaaS) platform to quickly create digital experiences. “You think of an app, we deliver the app. On-Demand IT is the future, and we are proud to bring such bleeding-edge technology to the NextGenTV industry.”
At first, the service plans to offer internet to the world of the internet of things like smart cars and signage. In the long run, the service could be used to offer high-speed internet for home use in the future.
The service is expected to launch first in 10 markets with plans to expand quickly.
One of the main selling points of ATSC 3.0 has been the idea that it could be used for more than just TV. Now it looks like some of the early steps into using ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV as an internet provider also are becoming a reality.
The best part of using ATSC 3.0 as an internet service is the ability to offer internet everywhere, even as you drive your car. Now we wait to see how this move into internet everywhere becomes a reality.