[op00to]

It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars to certify an LTE/5g device. Not the chipset, but the entire device. Then, the per part cost of adding LTE chipsets that won’t be used on the majority of devices, since they’ll be connected to consumer internet. Finally, there is a fixed service cost that is not trivial per device per month per kb, usually.

Each stage of design cuts into the already razor thin margins. And for what? To get data on a few people that don’t connect their tv to the internet?

[kragen]

integrate an off-the-shelf 2G modem chip that's been certified for decades and cut a deal with a cellular carrier to only charge you per kb instead of per month like vending machine companies do