Best Buy Service Test Welcomed amid Networking Headaches
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Best Buy is finding a “Home Entertainment Advisors” service “very well received” in a 12- store test and is considering expanding its scope to home control and energy management, a representative said last week at the Connections conference. A $99 charge for the advice is dropped with a $300 purchase, said technical analyst Travis Misterek.
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The effort seems to have been in the works a while. A PowerPoint presentation online was labeled “Geek Squad Installation Playbook” and “updated 2007.” A Best Buy spokeswoman couldn’t be reached right away for further information about the service and to authenticate the presentation slides.
But Best Buy is finding that home networking can be a trying business, Misterek said. Many customers don’t have the time to stay in a store for the 15-minute education that they need for the routers they buy, and it’s hard to charge twice the price of a $60 router to install it, he said.
Competing standards in both powerline and wireline networking complicate matters, and so does interference in “the junk land at 2.4 gigahertz” for wireless, Misterek said. Best Buy supports the dual-band 802.11n standard and hopes the 5 GHz band doesn’t meet the fate of the 2.4, the other one used in the technology, he said. No powerline technology can be used in homes with three-phase power, he said. Best Buy would like that gap filled and a single technology to emerge, Misterek said.
“We would love” the networking technology from the Multimedia over Coax Alliance “to be a real product,” because coaxial cable is so widely installed in homes, Misterek said. But it’s not compatible with signals from satellites, he said. He called on the promoters of the technology to change that.
Best Buy also is starting to sell WiMAX gear in markets where service is available, he said.