3:05 PM -- U.S. cable operators have deployed Docsis 3.0 to 60 percent of the nation's households, a figure that should rise to 77 percent by the end of 2011, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) revealed in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week. How many of those homes are actually paying for a Docsis 3.0 service? Well, let's not get too ahead of ourselves.
Here's D3's deployment path:
The purpose of the report, put together at the behest of FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, isn't merely to show off what the nation's major MSOs are doing with Docsis 3.0 in urban areas, but to emphasize that wideband is also penetrating smaller, more rural markets without government handouts. And, by the way, the filing comes amid the FCC's National Broadband Plan and as the agency chews on Universal Service Fund reform ideas that center around broadband connectivity. Cable's not wild about a plan that's been pitched by the telcos, claiming it strongly favors the ILECs. (See Why USF Reform Matters and ACA: Reject Telco USF Reform Proposals.)
To wit, the letter highlights some D3 deployment updates by some Tier 2 providers. Some examples:
- BendBroadband has D3 available to all 63,000 homes in passes in Central Oregon
- Eagle Communications has it in front of 99 percent of its 35,000 homes passed
- Mediacom Communications Corp. has D3 out to 85 percent of the 910,638 homes it passes in Iowa
- Suddenlink Communications, the largest MSO cited, has completed wideband upgrades in 76 percent of its 2.7 million homes passed in parts of Texas, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Arizona
We'll have to see if this has much pull at the FCC as it moves the USF ball forward, but it does demonstrate that U.S. cable's made some big progress with D3 since Comcast Corp. got the wideband ball rolling in Minneapolis/St. Paul in April 2008. (See Comcast Enters the Wideband Era .)
— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Light Reading Cable
