Wall Street wasn't enamored with Charter Communications' plans for $5.5 billion in network investments over the next three years, with Charter shares closing Wednesday at $328.34, down 16.4%, after a Tuesday investor presentation following that day's market close at which it unveiled the spending plan. New CEO Chris Winfrey (see 2209210008) said the spending would give it a network of 2 Gbps/1 Gbps speeds and capacity using DOCSIS 4.0 technology of 10 Gbps. In the context of Charter's overall size "and what we get for [the spending], we think it's worth it," Winfrey said. He said Charter will expand its Spectrum Mobile 1 Gbps offering across more of its footprint. He said Charter sees big growth opportunities in selling converged mobile and wireline service, with only 3 million subscribers today taking that although its network passes 55 million locations. Video’s problem has been affordability, and the Charter/Comcast joint venture Xumo will let Charter sell streaming video packages and applications, aggregate consumer streaming applications, and deploy a lower-cost IP set-top box, Winfrey said.
Big milestones in 10G technology development this year such as reaching 9 Gbps downstream and 6 Gbps upstream capacity with DOCSIS 4.0 technology "support the key tenets of 10G," CableLabs said Tuesday. Other notable steps toward 10G include Comcast's testing of a 10G modem prototype (see 2201130053) and its announcement it will roll out symmetrical multigig speeds next year (see 2209200048), CableLabs said.
Charter Communications joined the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative established by Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Charter said Tuesday. The task force launched last year (see 2108050035).
Altice, which had been looking at possibly selling its Suddenlink business (see 2208040037), will keep it after all. Altice's board unanimously decided continuing to operate Suddenlink "represents the best path forward for Altice USA and its stockholders," it said Thursday. "They obviously didn’t get an offer at a price they considered adequate," New Street Research's Jonathan Chaplin wrote investors, noting the move was "widely anticipated."
Cox Communications advertisements claiming it can provide "gig speeds everywhere" and implying AT&T can't have a reasonable basis, though other Cox ad claims should be modified, the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division (NAD) said Wednesday. It said AT&T challenged the Cox ad claims. NAD recommended Cox make clear its claims about gig speeds are available only for downloads and that Cox avoid conveying the "unsupported implied message" AT&T doesn't offer comparable speeds to 5G providers in markets where Cox and AT&T compete. NAD said Cox indicated it will comply with the recommendations.
Cable operators' online inspection files will move in mid-November from using a cable operation and licensing system (COALS) ID for login to commission registration system (CORES) logins, FCC Media Bureau Chief Engineer Jeff Neumann said Wednesday. In a bureau webinar about the agency's updated COALS system, Neumann said incentive auction reimbursement program logins that use COALS ID won't transition to CORES because that program is near completion and should wrap up within a couple of months. The retirement of COALS ID log-ins for CORES is probably the biggest of the various key changes in the COALS update, he said. The system dates back about 20 years and was in need of update, bureau Deputy Chief Hillary DeNigro said. The move to the updated system, made earlier this month, should mean better security and reliability and also brings cable antenna relay service filings online, she said. Neumann said the updated COALS improves its public search capabilities and makes most external filings easily printable. He said users now will get emailed updates after acceptance of filings and payment of fees, improving communication. He said a user guide and an FAQ section are being prepared.
About 66% of U.S. TV households have some form of live pay-TV service, with the percentage of TV households with cable, satellite, telco or virtual MVPD service down from 79% in 2017, said a Friday Leichtman Research Group report. Some 73% of adults 45 and older have a pay-TV service vs. 57% of ages 18-44, said LRG, and 46% of households that moved in the past year don’t currently have one. “The decline in pay-TV subscribers is not solely a function of those disconnecting services, but is also related to a slowdown in those entering or reentering the category,” said LRG President Bruce Leichtman. “Overall, about 10.5% of TV households last subscribed to a pay-TV service in the past three years, 12% last subscribed over three years ago, and 11.5% never subscribed,” he said. Households with more TVs have more pay-TV services: 73% with three or more TVs have pay TV vs. 65% with two TVs and 52% with one, said the report.
About 93% of U.S. households will have a broadband subscription by the end of 2025, either fixed or mobile, as the market enters a “time of renewed competition and innovation,” Parks Associates said Tuesday. Adoption of the original broadband bundle, with pay-TV and voice services, is declining, but “new value-added services are providing new opportunities for increasing customer satisfaction and growing revenue,” said analyst Kristen Hanich. Optimized Wi-Fi and gateway-based cybersecurity are becoming increasingly popular in the residential market, and bulk internet and managed Wi-Fi deployments in the multi-dwelling unit space are making broadband a “competitive, but potentially lucrative, market,” Hanich said. Parks plans the virtual Connections connected home conference Thursday at noon EST.
Comcast is boosting the speeds for a variety of its broadband tiers by anywhere from 25 Mbps to 200 Mbps starting this week, it said Monday.
Cable One and Stephens Capital Partners, which together own a majority of Wisper, are seeking FCC OK to sell their holdings to Wisper founder Nathan Stooke, who has a minority interest. In a Section 214 transfer application posted Monday, Cable One and Stephens said some financing for the purchase of their holdings would also go to Wisper to allow it to accelerate buildout to its Connect America Fund and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund locations. Wisper provided fixed wireless and fiber-based broadband and voice services in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.