COMCAST HEADQUARTERS - PHILADELPHIA

Emergency Executive Board Meeting - 2 Hours After Announcement

Roberto, CEO of Camcast, sat at the head of the mahogany conference table. Around him, twenty-three executives stared at tablets displaying the Nova Technologies announcement.

"Let me get this straight," Roberto said, his voice calm—too calm. "We're panicking over one thousand units."

Dave Watson, President of Comcast Cable, leaned forward. "Brian, you're missing the point—"

"Am I?" Roberto interrupted. "One thousand units. Even if every single buyer maxes out the household plan—which they won't—that's thirty thousand connections. We have fifty-four million customers. That's 0.05% market exposure."

"In month one," Watson emphasized. "What about month six? Month twelve? What's their scaling trajectory?"

Roberto pulled up a document. "Our analysis team ran projections. Best case scenario for them: ten thousand units by month six. Fifty thousand by end of year one. That's still only 1.5 million potential connections. We lose more customers than that to people moving houses."

"You're thinking about this wrong," said Jennifer Brooks, Chief Technology Officer. She stood up, connecting her laptop to the conference room display. "This isn't about immediate impact. This is about the Kodak problem."

Everyone in the room went quiet.

"Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975," Brooks continued. "They shelved it because it wasn't an immediate threat to film. They had 90% market share. They thought they had time. By 2012, they were bankrupt. Why? Because they waited until disruption was inevitable instead of adapting when it was manageable."

She clicked through to a slide showing market projections.

"Right now, Nova Tech is supply-constrained. Naturally or artificially, we don't know. But what happens when they scale production? What happens when they're shipping a million units per month? What happens when the entire high-end market—tech enthusiasts, businesses, content creators, developers—all switch to Lucid Air?"

"Then what happens when the price drops?" added Michel, CFO. "Right now it's $500 hardware plus subscription. But hardware costs always decrease. What happens when it's $200? $100? When every new apartment building just includes Lucid Air instead of wiring for cable internet?"

Roberto was silent for a moment.

"So what are you proposing?" He asked.

Brooks clicked to the next slide: STRATEGIC RESPONSE OPTIONS

"We have three plays," she said. "And we need to decide now, while we still have leverage."

OPTION 1: AGGRESSIVE DEFENSIVE POSITIONING

"We double down on infrastructure advantages they can't replicate," Brooks explained. "Bundling. Lock customers into ecosystem packages: internet + cable + mobile + home security. Make it painful to leave. Offer two-year contracts with aggressive early termination fees. Target the 98% of people who won't get Lucid Air in the next eighteen months."

"We also push business and enterprise hard," added Watson. "Lucid Air requires a Lucid device to activate. Most businesses aren't going to issue Lucid devices to employees. We offer enterprise fiber contracts with guaranteed uptime, dedicated support, and infrastructure integration they can't get from a consumer device."

Roberto nodded slowly. "Essentially, we farm the market they can't reach yet."

"Exactly. And we buy time."

OPTION 2: TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION STRATEGY

"This one's more aggressive," Michel said, taking over. "We approach Nova Technologies with a partnership offer. Not acquisition—they'd never sell, and we couldn't afford them anyway. But partnership. Joint venture. Revenue sharing."

"We offer them something they need: distribution infrastructure, existing customer relationships, regulatory expertise, legal resources. We have lobbyists in every state capital and DC. We know how to navigate telecom law. They don't."

"In exchange, we get preferential access to Lucid Air technology. Maybe co-branded service. 'Comcast Powered by Lucid Air.' We become their infrastructure partner instead of their competitor."

"Will they take it?" Roberto asked.

"Probably not," Michel admitted. "But the attempt signals to our investors that we're being proactive. And if they do take it, we survive. If they don't, we have a paper trail showing we tried to innovate."

OPTION 3: LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY WARFARE

Everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably.

"I'm not saying we should do this," Brooks said carefully. "I'm saying it's an option."

She pulled up a document labeled REGULATORY VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT.

"Lucid Air has zero regulatory approval that we are aware of. No FCC certification. No spectrum licensing. No infrastructure permits. It claims to operate with zero interference, but that's physically impossible unless it's using unlicensed spectrum or operating outside known frequency bands."

"We have friends at the FCC. We have relationships with senators on the Commerce Committee. We could push for immediate regulatory review. Safety testing. Interference studies. Environmental impact assessments. Security audits."

"We tie them up in bureaucracy for eighteen months while we figure out our next move."

Roberto frowned. "That's scorched earth. It makes us look terrified and anti-innovation. It'll generate terrible PR."

"Worse than bankruptcy?" Brooks shot back.

Silence.

"We're not doing that," Roberto said finally. "Not as our primary strategy. But we keep it as a fallback if they start scaling faster than projected."

"Here's what we do," he said, standing up. "Three-phase approach."

"Phase One: Aggressive retention and bundling. We announce new 'Ultimate Connectivity' packages next week. Five-year price locks. Bundle everything. We target the 99% of customers who won't have access to Lucid Air in the next twelve months."

"Phase Two: We start skunkworks R&D. I want our best engineers figuring out how Lucid Air works. We partner with universities, labs, anyone who can reverse-engineer this. If we can't beat them, we copy them."

"Phase Three: We quietly approach Nova Technologies through back channels. Not desperate. Curious. Exploratory. We see if there's any scenario where they'd consider infrastructure partnership."

"And Phase Four," Michel added, "We start preparing our balance sheet for a different business model. This might be the beginning of the end for consumer ISP as we know it. We need diversification strategies. Content, business services, infrastructure leasing. We need revenue streams that don't depend on being the internet gateway."

"We have maybe two years before this becomes an existential threat. Maybe less. We use that time wisely," Roberto said, as he looked around the room.

He closed his laptop.

"And someone get me a Lucid Air unit when they launch. I want to see what we're dealing with."

***

AT&T HEADQUARTERS - DALLAS

Crisis Management Call.

Johnson, CEO of AT&T, was on a video call with fifteen executives scattered across three time zones.

"Let me be clear about something," Johnson said. "We are not Comcast. We are not a pure-play ISP. We have wireless. We have fiber. We have business services. We have media assets. We're diversified. And that diversification is what's going to save us."

He pulled up a chart.

"Lucid Air targets home internet. Fine. That's 15% of our revenue. Painful, but survivable. What it doesn't touch is enterprise fiber, 5G infrastructure, cell towers, business connectivity, and IoT networks."

"Our play is simple: we pivot hard into the segments they can't reach. Businesses, governments, infrastructure. We sell guaranteed uptime, physical redundancy, security compliance, and regulatory approval. All things Lucid Air doesn't have."

Timothy, Chief Technology Officer, unmuted. "John, I need to push back on something. You're assuming Lucid Air stays limited to consumer devices. What happens when Nova Technologies releases Lucid Air Enterprise? What happens when they target business connectivity?"

"Then we have a problem," Jonathan admitted. "But right now? That's speculation. We deal with the threat in front of us, not the hypothetical one eighteen months away."

"Here's the strategy: We announce a massive enterprise infrastructure investment. Billions into fiber, 5G, edge computing. We send a message to businesses that we're not going anywhere, that we're the reliable, regulated, secure option."

"And then?" someone asked.

"And then we pray their production stays constrained long enough for us to find a new business model."

***

Across boardrooms, emergency meetings, and crisis calls, the telecommunications industry reached the same conclusion:

Immediate threat: minimal.

Long-term threat: existential.

Strategic response: buy time, diversify, and prepare for a world where consumer ISPs might not exist.

The era of cable internet wasn't ending this year. But everyone could see the end coming.

And that was almost worse.

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