MOTOROLA, July 12,2010
To Our Valued 4DTV Customer:
As you are well aware, the C-Band market has been in a constant state of decline for
many years. The total subscriber count has now reached about 18,000 and continues to
dwindle. We have received indications that some of our existing customers will not be
participating in this space beyond 2010. As the customer base declines, it becomes
increasingly difficult to maintain our participation in the ecosystem. We have fixed
operational costs that we must recover, and the only way to recover the cost would be to
substantially raise our prices over the remaining customer base.
After having considered these facts, we’ve arrived at the decision that Motorola will not
be participating in the operation of this business after 12/31/2010. This decision will
allow us and our partners to gracefully shut down this business. We feel that this is the
best course of action for Motorola, our partner companies, and the consumers who use
our servIces.
Sincerely,
Eric Sprunk
Senior Director
Motorola PKI Center
Motorola, Inc., Networks & Enterprise
6450 Sequence Drive, San Diego, CA 92121 U.S.A.
I understand there is cost involved in providing subscription programming to C band 4DTV users. The market climate doesn’t support that business model. What I don’t understand is the disabling of the consumer channel/satellite maps, which are the heart and soul of what makes a 4DTV a useful FTA DC2 receiver. The commercial DC2 heads continue to receive these channel maps. I don’t see (or probably don’t understand the technology) why it would be so hard to uplink satellite/channel maps for the FTA channels (PBS and such). Please consider enabling this data stream, so the thousands of loyal C band enthusiasts won’t have any option but to throw their $1000 investment in the garbage can.
Regards,
Adam Bernstein