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T-Mobile Rebrands Layer3 Service as 'TVision Home', Inks Deal To Add Amazon Prime Video (variety.com)
T-Mobile today unveiled a new name for its Layer3 TV internet television service -- TVision Home -- with enhanced features, and announced a deal with Amazon to add Prime Video to the service later in 2019. From a report: TVision Home will be available starting April 14 in eight markets (the same areas Layer3 TV has already been available): Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Longmont, Colo. It's not a skinny bundle: TVision Home starts at $90 per month, which includes more than 150 channels, local broadcast stations and regional sports networks, as well as 15,000 VOD titles. Premium TV packages like HBO and Showtime are extra. In addition, TVision Home users must pay a $10 monthly set-top fee per connected TV. (Actually, the regular price of TVision Home for non-T-Mobile wireless customers is $99.99 per month, but the carrier is including a $9.99-per-month discount to all new subs for a limited time.)
More likely, they do understand but just don't care. As long as the masses are willing to pay large amounts for bundled entertainment, perhaps because that's a good deal easier than any other option, the companies will continue to make lots of profit. And that's the only thing they care about.
From their website:
TVision Home is part of T-Mobile’s 5G strategy and vision to give consumers real options to the cable companies, and that starts with the Sprint merger. Today, almost half of the country’s households (45%), and more than three quarters of rural households (76%) have no high-speed service (100 Mbps average) or only one option for high-speed broadband3. But if the merger is approved, by bringing together T-Mobile and Sprint, the New T-Mobile will have the scale and capacity to create a supercharged 5G network capable of reaching over half the country’s households with high-speed broadband by 2024.
And while TVision Home uses your existing wired broadband today, TVision Home is IPTV designed for a 5G future where wireless broadband can replace your home internet. That means millions can finally free themselves from the Cableopoly once and for all.
“TVision Home is about so much more than home TV it’s TV built for the 5G era,” said Mike Sievert, COO and President of T-Mobile. “With New T-Mobile, we’ll bring real choice, competition, better service, lower prices and faster speedsright into your living room. And – speaking of speed – while the Cableopoly innovates at the pace of the cable companies, we’ll innovate at the pace of the internet to give customers more value and more freedom more quickly.”