Also in this CES news snapshot: CommScope expands Wi-Fi 6 lineup; Netgear takes flight with Wi-Fi 6E; the CBRS Alliance rebrands.
Latency is a key part of the user experience, which is why it is one of the pillars of the cable industry's 10G strategy.
As we climb back out of the pandemic, expect to see lower latency broadband in cable networks, open RAN-fueled 5G rolling out around the globe and AI guiding the systems in smart buildings to peak efficiency.
John Chapman's focus has extended to PON, 5G and fixed wireless, but he'll 'always be a cable guy at heart.'
Merging of the units follows Cisco's recent exit from the cable amplifier business and the slow migration by operators toward network and service convergence.
Meanwhile, Frontier and AT&T lag the field, according to a PCMag study of the best gaming ISPs.
CEO Gray Chynoweth talks product and service provider strategy after closing the acquisition of Zoom Telephonics and rebranding the company under the Minim moniker.
No. 1 US cable operator plans to raise monthly rates for both cable TV and Internet service on January 1, along with its 'hidden' broadcast TV and regional sports network fees.
New Light Reading e-book sponsored by Harmonic highlights some of the early advances made by cable operators and vendors in virtualizing the industry's access networks and expanding their capacity.
Coopérative de Câblodistribution de L'Arrière Pays (CCAP) has increased its top broadband speeds by 10X and HD and 4K channels by 34% after adopting Adara's bandwidth reclamation solution.
Operator confirms it will extend usage-based data policy and unlimited data option to its northeast division starting next year, matching up with policies already in place in the MSO's central and west divisions.
Minim, a Wi-Fi and security software company run by former Dyn execs, is pairing with Zoom Telephonics, a supplier of cable modems, gateways and other CPE products sold under the Motorola brand.
That acquisition, which includes products for new remote MACPHY architectures, is expected to represent an incremental revenue boost of 10% to 15% for Vecima in fiscal 2021.
Dan Whalen joins cable network-focused supplier as operators begin to beef up the upstream and embark on significant HFC network upgrades.
More than half of the chipmaker's record $156.6 million in Q3 revenues came from the acquisition of Intel's home connectivity unit that develops silicon for Wi-Fi and DOCSIS modems and gateways.
Cable op also notes that CBRS spectrum won at auction is for Wisper Internet, a Cable One-backed fixed wireless ISP.
Chuck Treadway, who took the reins last month, has until Q3 2021 to assess and present his long-term plan for the company, board chairman says.
Saddled with debt, the cable company is still losing customers in two markets and faces mounting infrastructure rivalry in the UK.
Increase of $5 per month won't apply to Charter customers who bundle broadband with the operator's traditional pay-TV service.
Network vendor reached a 'major turning point' in Q3 2020 as revenues from Casa's fixed telco and wireless business overtook its core cable business for the first time, CEO Jerry Guo says.
Whalen, an exec late of Adtran and CommScope, succeeds Charlie Vogt as CEO. Whalen takes over as ATX looks to elevate its role in HFC network upgrades.
While the big Canadian operator reported flat overall revenues and higher net income for its fiscal fourth quarter, its wireless sub growth sagged and its cable and satellite TV units shed more subs.
Spectrum Mobile enters EBITA-positive territory after surpassing 2 million lines in Q3. Meanwhile, Charter's broadband and video subs surged in the period.
Across its HFC and FTTP networks, 29% of broadband gross additions are taking Altice USA's 1-Gig product.
Ike Elliott, the new CEO of Kyrio, says the CableLabs subsidiary is taking a network-agnostic approach to device testing and expanding into software services that benefit cable operators and their suppliers.
Build rates need to increase four-fold to meet a 2025 gigabit target and there is still no detailed plan for covering hard-to-reach areas.
The idea of using small, distributed booster amplifiers to overcome the power issues presented by 1.8GHz upgrades is gaining traction, but remains a topic that's ripe for debate.
'Today's cable operators are becoming tomorrow's mobile operators,' Cisco's John Chapman says.
Commscope cuts off a piece of Comcast's next-gen network biz while Vecima and Technetix connect on a product/sales deal focused on distributed access architectures.
Mid-split and high-split upgrades will beef up HFC's upstream, but fiber competition is pushing the MSO to give a closer look at DOCSIS 4.0 and the industry's broader '10G' initiative.
Light Reading's Alan Breznick and Jeff Baumgartner recap the highlights from last week's Cable Next-Gen Digital Symposium.
DOCSIS 3.1 and upstream spectrum upgrades will provide plenty of capacity runway to cable ops, but 'we cannot take our foot off the gas,' Cox's Jeff Finkelstein says.
Crossing milestones on the path to '10G,' Comcast says the trial is running on a live production, 'all digital' HFC network in Jacksonville using remote PHY digital nodes and a virtualized CMTS.
CommScope's new 'migratable' distributed access device can operate in both remote PHY and remote MACPHY configurations as cable operators continue to explore what path their future HFC networks will take.
Spending on major architectural overhauls has declined this year because of the pandemic as many cablecos have defaulted to performing quick network upgrades and meeting urgent bandwidth capacity demands.
Light Reading Cable/Video Practice Leader Alan Breznick and Light Reading Senior Editor Jeff Baumgartner preview two cable-related symposiums happening this week, on Tuesday, October 6 and Thursday, October 8. They're all digital this year, as we've had to say goodbye to Broadway while staying safe during the pandemic. Tuesday's program will focus on cable business services and Thursday's program's focus shifts to emerging cable network architectures.
Along with an ongoing de-emphasis of other older technologies, AT&T's DSL sale stoppage enters the picture as AT&T amplifies its focus on fiber-fed and wireless broadband services.
In this blog post, Broadband Success Partners' Davis Strauss discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the commercial market and how businesses can cope.
New Flexible MAC architecture specs will give cable operators options as they disaggregate elements of next-gen networks that will pump out multi-gig speeds and support low latencies and enhanced security.
Charles 'Chuck' Treadway succeeds the retiring Eddie Edwards and takes the helm following the integration of Arris, a company-wide focus on 5G and the need to get a grip on CommScope's struggling CPE business.
Some still see video as an important piece, while others are extracting themselves from the business to leave the mess of rocketing programming rates to OTT-TV providers.
Growing Canadian cable and video equipment vendor racks up big revenue and income gains in its fiscal Q4, after closing deal to buy the bulk of Nokia's cable access product portfolio early last month.
The UK cable operator has already promised a gigabit-speed connection across its entire network by the end of next year. It is now eyeing a service that is twice as fast.
Beefing up capacity to 1.2GHz and up to 1.8GHz is a primary driver for the new CableLabs specs. Meanwhile, SCTE has already kicked off standards focused on a future move to 3GHz.
The demo in Ames, Iowa, features an enhanced DOCSIS 3.1 network feeding 8K video and more than 70 connected devices, along with an eye-popping show of emerging bandwidth-eating light field display technology.
Bringing company's tech stack to smart TVs fits into a broader plan to build a global IP video platform that relies on a common tech stack and standardized hardware, Brian Roberts says.
In a move that could accelerate cable upstream upgrades and DOCSIS 4.0 development, Google Fiber will soon launch 2-Gig service in Nashville and Huntsville for $100 per month, and expand it to most markets by early 2021.
Broadband Success Partners' Jack Burton argues that 5G is not the competitive threat to cable that many once thought it would be.
Cable operators have raked in broadband subs during the pandemic, but the reasons behind the surge run far and deep, according to a top industry analyst.
There's still plenty of speed and capacity to mine out of DOCSIS 3.1, Charter CFO Chris Winfrey says.
Poised to apply pressure on CommScope and Technicolor, a cadre of original device manufacturers have been pushing new DOCSIS 3.1 devices through CableLabs at an increasing rate.
Cable operators prioritized near-term capacity upgrades and enhancements to legacy centralized infrastructure in 2020, slowing the drive toward a future that will feature distributed access networks.
Standards for Generic Access Platform nodes are inching toward finalization, setting up 2021 as a time for vendors to ramp up development of the physical hardware and software.
Light Reading's Glimmer Twins of cable, Alan Breznick and Jeff Baumgartner, look back on this week's virtualized edition of the Cable Next-Gen Technologies and Strategies event.
Specific product timelines are up to vendors, but CableLabs is preparing to be in position to start certification testing in early 2022, exec says.
Cable ops won't need the full capabilities of DOCSIS 4.0 for years, but the time is nigh for them to start prepping the network with certain elements as the full product ecosystem is developed.
The process will be evolutionary, but CableLabs and its members are working to define a cohesive framework for converged, wireless/wireline networks underpinned by virtualization, CableLabs' Mariam Sorond says.
After a stint as chief product officer at Adtran, the cable and telecom industry vet is taking a hiatus for family reasons and to spend some time weighing his next industry move.
Emerging standard for interoperable, modular nodes will help cable operators bring unity to a multitude of access network technologies, including PON, LTE, Wi-Fi and future 5G deployments.
EXFO, Infovista, Keysight Technologies, Netrounds, Sandvine, Spirent Communications, Tutela Technologies and Viavi Solutions stand out as the eight final contenders for outstanding test and measurement vendor this year.
MaxLinear has accelerated product development after closing its Intel deal, and Broadcom, sources said, has secured the financial backing it desired to proceed with D4.0.
Despite a surging OTT video market, Roku contends that data caps 'remain an avenue for anti-competitive conduct by broadband providers' while ISP competition remains insufficient.
CommScope's CPE business continued to struggle in Q2, but vendor says sales at T-Mobile are 'ramping' in the wake of the recently completed Sprint merger.
Video vendor says work stemming from SES partnership focused on reclaiming C-band spectrum for 5G will drive material revenues as early as Q4.
Once a shop focused primarily on the cable access network, Casa's Q2 results indicate that the vendor is starting to find its groove in the wireless and fixed telecom markets.
Using a mix of FTTP and DOCSIS 3.1, MSO has 1-Gig available to 75% of its footprint, with 24% of new broadband subs in those areas opting for gigabit service.
Canada's Shaw's mobile offering has unlimited and by-the-Gig options, initially focused on residential broadband subs in Alberta and British Columbia.
As Light Reading prepares for the digital version of Cable Next-Gen next month, Tien Fu and Alan Breznick discuss how they are coping with COVID-19... and without each other.
Vodafone is using Harmonic's virtualization software, remote PHY devices and cloud-based management system for its DOCSIS 3.1 gigabit rollout in Germany.
Vecima is poised to raise its profile and accelerate its next-gen cable network roadmap by acquiring Nokia's DOCSIS distributed access product line and its EPON and DOCSIS provisioning over EPON portfolios.
On this episode of 'What's the Story?' – a new series from the Light Reading Podcast – Alan Breznick talks with pod host Nicole Ferraro about cable companies' moves into wireless: the latest news, why it matters and what's likely to happen next.
Maker of DOCSIS and MoCA silicon is also confident it will close the $150 million acquisition of Intel's home gateway business in the third quarter.
Big Canadian telecom provider suffers big drops in revenues and net income in second quarter as both its wireless and media units post markedly weaker results.
Big Canadian cable and wireless operator reports revenue and profit declines for its fiscal third quarter but fares better than analysts projected as it shows signs of recovery.
New AI-assisted tool is helping cable operators identify and pinpoint the source of upstream network noise during a pandemic that has caused peak usage to surge, CEO says.
Target of passing 15 million homes with 'gigabit-capable' networks by end of 2021 apparently on track.
Comcast expects to see steeper video losses continue in Q2 alongside an opportunity to grow its broadband base and a core 'connectivity' business that also features Xfinity Flex and Xfinity Mobile, CFO says.
Chipmaker, which is about to acquire Intel's home connectivity biz, said the digital assault penetrated some of its IT systems but stressed it has no plans to meet the attacker's monetary demands.
UK's largest cable operator said April was the busiest month on record on the network, with usage in May running close behind.
On a national basis, peak downstream usage is up just 6.6% since March 1, while the pressure on cable's upstream continues as peak usage is up 25.1% during the period, according to the latest batch of NCTA data.
More 'light touch' automation techniques will be implemented as cable operators determine new ways to add and adjust capacity to address rising and fluctuating demands on the network.
There's no imminent need for DOCSIS 4.0, but operators are already exploring early, incremental moves to prepare their networks as new technologies and products based on the new CableLabs specs develop.
'The impact on the network has not been extreme at all' during the pandemic, though Liberty Global might look into minor changes in areas that are seeing some upstream congestion, a top engineering exec says.
HFC is evolving into a connectivity and compute platform woven together with virtualization as cable ops prepare to support a more diverse mix of apps and services, CableLabs' Belal Hamzeh says.
After canceling the on-site event in Denver, the cable engineering and standards-setting organization will push ahead with a completely digital format for the event, which will take place October 12-16.
Meanwhile, cable access revenues declined 22% even as shipments of DOCSIS 3.1 CPE accelerated.
Antietam Broadband has eliminated its data usage plans and data caps permanently after relaxing those policies temporarily during the pandemic. Antietam's move could pressure other cable ops to follow suit.
In response to the pandemic, Comcast has accelerated the introduction of a new 'At Home' product that provides a dedicated, commercial-grade service paired with a simplified, company-paid billing structure.
Industry sources say Broadcom has halted investment in next-gen DOCSIS technology until it gets financial support from cable operators, including help footing the bill on product development.
Canadian operator has launched 'Fibre+ Gig,' a DOCSIS 3.1-powered residential broadband product that has ties to Shaw's syndication deal with Comcast.
And new proprietary data from Comlinkdata shows how much runway some individual US cable ops still have against DSL and FTTN broadband competition and the exposure they face from FTTP.
But, thanks partly to the current COVID-19 hit, the market won't approach its previous heights until at least the middle of the decade when next-gen access technologies finally kick in.
Comcast's affirmation of that commitment comes amid chatter that the cable op has reassessed its near-term engineering priorities during the pandemic. Still, that decision could impact suppliers involved in the project.
Those roads will be strewn with signal power challenges as spectrum is raised to 1.8GHz, but DOCSIS 4.0 provides a prime opportunity to rethink the design of HFC networks and introduce a new Distributed Gain Architecture.
Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Nokia boasts 5G world record; Etisalat loses CEO; Altice pays off debts; Angola awards fourth license.
Instead of staging a live conference in London next month as previously planned, Light Reading will now run a free, digital event over two afternoons in mid-June because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joe Wytanis, an exec late of Cisco and Scientific-Atlanta, came on board in 2018 to help the cable modem vendor, which sells products under the Motorola brand, make some headway in the service provider market.
Cutting opex and goosing performance are driving forces for FTTP upgrades, but Altice USA believes the move will also enable it to lean more heavily on its HFC network to backhaul wireless traffic.
Along with a focus on near-term network and service needs, the pandemic is 'making every cable operator relook at their network,' says Technetix exec Sandy Howe.
Europe's largest cable operator reports lower operating cash flow, slightly lower revenues and higher customer losses as the novel coronavirus spreads, but company maintains financial guidance for year.
