Can wireless startup Starry disrupt cable in America?

For a lot more meet Starry’s CEO & Founder Chet Kanojia for a fireside chat at Wi-Fi NOW the conference in DC this April. Register here while Early Bird fees apply!

Big cable carriers have exerted an iron grip on the US market for TV and broadband for decades. Now wireless startup Starry is out to change how broadband is delivered to your home, what you pay for it, and how it’s consumed.

Boston-based Starry is headed up by serial entrepreneur and tech celeb Chet Kanojia, previously of Aereo. This time Kanojia is out to transform every aspect of broadband delivery: From wireless Internet delivered to your apartment window to the Starry Station Wi-Fi router with lots of useful in-home Wi-Fi features built in. Starry launched the concept last week in New York City although the infrastructure part of the service called Starry Internet will launch in Boston first this summer, the company says.

And Starry is impressively conceived. Here is how Starry eases some serious consumer pain-points:

• Starry Station looks to be one of the most comprehensive & useful in-home Wi-Fi products around. Just getting through the feature list would need another couple of pages (see the details here). The station will work with any broadband connection (in addition to Starry’s own) and will even let you check if you’re getting the broadband speeds you’re paying for.

• If you want better Wi-Fi coverage around the house (and who doesn’t?) you can either move the Starry Station around or get a Starry Wing range extender to plug into a wall socket

• Starry uses millimetre-wave technology in the 37-39 GHz band to get the broadband signal to your apartment window (see the photos here). According to this news report the company plans to deliver gigabit speeds to your home at prices as low as $25 a month. Technically, Starry has found a way of transporting 802.11ac Wi-Fi signals in the high gigahertz bands over distances of up to 2 km without signal degradation, the company says.

All of this looks like a great fit for the big city broadband consumer but we will have to wait and see if Starry can live up to its high performance promise. Starry’s gigahertz wireless technology is – as far as we know – the first mass-market foray by a service provider into millimeter wave-based Internet for consumers.