Starry CEO Chet Kanojia Wants to Attack Broadband Monopolies From the Air

Uber may make disruption look easy, but it’s really hard to take on the man, Chet Kanojia says. And he would know: Kanojia’s last startup, Aereo, tried to upend the pay TV market and was driven out of business by the Supreme Court.

Now, he’s back with a new company called Starry, and this time the prize is the consumer broadband Internet market, which for most consumers is currently a monopoly or duopoly. Kanojia talked about the new initiative and how it hopes to win over consumers, using airwaves, on the latest episode of "Re/code Decode" with Peter Kafka.

"Comcast isn’t going out of business," Kanojia said when asked if he expected another challenge from incumbents. "It is better for them to have a few small competitors in the market so that the government is satisfied."

Amelia Krales for Re/code

He also discussed why innovation in broadband Internet seems to happen so slowly, and why Starry is taking a drastically different approach to disrupting broadband than Google, which is pursuing the arguably more conservative Google Fiber.

"I’m not convinced," Kanojia said of Fiber. "I don’t see anybody digging up ditches in New Delhi and Mexico City. Wireless infrastructure has to do."

Listen to or download the episode in the player above, or click here to subscribe to "Re/code Decode" on iTunes; you can also find "Re/code Decode" on TuneIn, Stitcher and Clammr.

Kara Swisher will be in this space on Monday to talk with SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, and Peter Kafka will be back next Thursday to talk to "The Jinx" director Andrew Jarecki.

If you like this show, don’t miss our newest podcast, "Too Embarrassed to Ask." It’s a bigger and better version of Lauren Goode and Kara Swisher’s weekly Q&A segment from "Re/code Decode." Click here to subscribe to the new show on iTunes right now. And you should also check out "Re/code Replay," an archive of audio content from our events and interviews by Kara Swisher, Walt Mossberg, Peter Kafka, Ina Fried and more. To subscribe to that, click right here.

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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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