Bell Labs predicts that the mid-term communication and entertainment future will center on wireless consumption of service provider products and services. In this future, MSOs will have a major role to play in new value chains, not only in the provision of small cell backhaul services, but in providing mobility-based services and connectivity as extensions of their evolved fixed access offers. What this really means is that an MSO’s future market success will leverage an extended fixed access network embracing wireless end points of all different types — licensed and unlicensed — that provide ubiquitous connectivity and entertainment to web-savvy subscribers. The move to this wireless future has already started. Wi-Fi is now a major component of some MSO mobility strategies and has been used to provide data connectivity in churn-reducing initiatives across the globe. Voice over IP (VoIP) service on Wi-Fi has also been used with varying degrees of success. What is clear to MSOs is that the technology is now available for the deployment of viable Wi-Fi first strategies. This paper describes what Wi-Fi first actually means to MSOs and addresses the key concerns with which MSOs currently struggle: What is the business case for Wi-Fi first and what’s needed to make it work?