Layer3 TV-The New Comcast

Layer3 TV box from Wired.com

By: Lexi Thayer

ATLANTA, Ga- A new wave of cable being refurbished with Layer3 TV.

Most Americans today are paying an average of $161 a month to an all-in-one service provider for cable. “The traditional experience we have at home seems really outdated,” said BTIG media and tech analyst Richard Greenfield. Layer3 TV is the new innovation coined by CEO Jeff Binder. According to Binder, Layer3 will make cable better by adding clearer pictures, better design, and stellar customer service. This new service will combine pay TV channels which include traditional broadcasters that Comcast or Time Warner provide. There will also be an Internet-enabled video in a channel guide that allows you to find what you want to watch. Layer3 after a while learn to show you programs you most likely will want to view.

Binder bought the URL for “Layer3” in 2007 before he knew what he’d do with it. (The name is a reference to network protocol architecture, which has seven layers; the third is network routing over which internet protocol travels.) Binder rose to fame as an entrepreneur working for Motorola and later leaving by age 50. His success comes from his video-on-demand startup called Broadbus Technologies. He sold this company to Motorola for $200 million in 2006. 

Binder created a partnership shortly after selling Broadbus Technologies with Dave Fellows, the chief technology officer for Comcast who had just recently left his position. Fellows had created the 'triple play' of bundling cable, broadband and television subscriptions. Binder and Fellows created an investment firm, Genovation Capital that partnered with TPG and Silver Lake to determine startups and cable companies to invest in or buy. By the year 2014, Binder and Fellows thought of a brilliant idea to incorporate not only cable, but also Internet to allow everyone access to their favorite programs. 

Essentially, Layer3 has shrunk bandwidth. Bandwidth is needed to transmit video. According to wired.com, "To transmit typical web video, an Internet connection must support download speeds of 10 to 15 megabits per second. If a lot of viewers are attempting to watch video using this amount of bandwidth, it becomes very taxing on the cables that carry the Internet to a home. "Binder explained Layer3 is able to send high-def video into a home at less than 4 megabits per second. This is on par with Netflix, but using a different video compression technology called HEVC (high efficiency video coding). Binder wants to emphasize this is not Internet TV. Layer3 will not have to rely on public Internet, they have their own Supercomputer. 

Layer3 recently tested out its technology under Umio. Two Texas communities experimented with Umio which offers 300 channels with cable and Internet offerings. The easy-to-use guide uses algorithms that analyze demographic data, time of day, and viewer preferences. Layer3 will eventually be available to customers in Chicago and a few other major cities on the East and West coasts. The cost of Layer3 will be somewhere around $80-150, depending on how many TVs a home has. Personally, I would be interested in testing out Layer3. I know Comcast now has Xfinity X1 which allows individuals to search by voice controlled remotes and use some aspects of Apps as well. I like how Layer3 is not as expensive as Comcast or Time Warner. I think $80-150 is a reasonable price. Right now, I'm paying over $100 for Comcast Internet and basic cable and I could receive faster Internet and over 300 channels for an $80 value.