Cable ops aren't uniform on whether they'll go with DOCSIS 4.0 or make a leap to FTTP, but it's clear that upgrading to a flexible, distributed access architecture (DAA) will emerge as the common denominator.

The US equipment maker follows Nokia in deciding to wind down operations in Russia. Its move will make Russia even more heavily dependent on China.

Study from ACA Connects argues that the case for new regulations has 'vanished' amid 'robust' broadband growth and competition.

Top five US cable operator Altice USA said it has more than 100K FTTP customers. The network passes about 1.3M homes and businesses. Multi-gigabit speeds are on the way.

Attributes such as high reliability and low latency are becoming critical, even in the multi-gigabit era. 'Netflix isn't going to look any better' on a multi-gigabit broadband connection, notes Vodafone's Gavin Young.

Viasat, whose prior top speed for home broadband tapped out at 100 Mbit/s, has introduced the new 150-Meg tier in dozens of markets, with plans to make the faster offering available nationwide.

Vendors are piling into the multi-billion-dollar market for PON equipment while component costs are soaring.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: MTN unveils 5G target; Ekinops passes the Microsoft audition; Zen and the art of getting a decent Wi-Fi signal.

The company is eyeing the industrial metaverse, but most telcos remain on sidelines. Docomo is aiming at non-telecom services accounting for half of revenue in three years.

The operator flagged local company Raliacom, which manufactures vehicle-tracking devices, as its first customer.

Cisco EVP talks about the projects aimed at reducing the digital divide and how private 5G-as-a-service could help.

In this podcast, Masum Mir, VP and GM of engineering at Cisco, discusses changes on the horizon for networks and network security to support the so-called metaverse, and how Cisco's relationship with the cable industry is evolving.

Charter expects to shed some broadband subs amid the transition to the ACP. Despite this 'special circumstance,' Charter's CFO still expects the overall broadband picture to stay positive in Q2.

Deborah Kish, VP of research and workforce development at the Fiber Broadband Association, discusses the organization's research on how fiber deployments are improving communities and shares updates about OpTIC: the FBA's new fiber optic technician training program.

Robin Olds, business development manager at Cisco, discusses opportunities for the company and industry at large as the US ramps up federal funding for fiber deployment.

Supporting and securing the network is rapidly evolving as data and applications are massively distributed and effectively delivered 'everywhere,' CEO Chuck Robbins said at the annual Cisco Live event.

Kevin Morgan, CMO at Clearfield, on the company's recent acquisition of Nestor Cables and what fiber-friendly federal funding rules mean for Clearfield, its clients and the future of connectivity in the US.

Consumer demand, operator technology upgrades, marketing and high levels of investment are all contributing to 1-Gig growth globally, says analyst firm Omdia.

DZS CEO Charlie Vogt talks about the influx of federal broadband funding and how his company is cutting costs for service providers by giving them more visibility into their customer networks.

'Macro slowdown in other parts of the economy could help free up semi [conductor] capacity for networking gear,' wrote the financial analysts at Rosenblatt Securities in a recent note to investors.

Starry, the fixed wireless operator, has vast potential but will need more funds to pull off a vision to service 13 million homes and connect 640,000 subs in the next five years, according to MoffettNathanson.

AT&T's field test was run on a production network involving five miles of fiber using central office tech from Nokia paired with customer premises equipment (CPE) outfitted with FPGAs.

Broadband rules also drew criticism from the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) which called NTIA's fiber focus 'contrary to Congress' tech-neutral design' of the infrastructure law.

Although average data consumption hit 513.8 gigabytes in Q1 2022, up 11% year-over-year, consumption actually dropped 4.2% versus the prior quarter, according to OpenVault's latest Broadband Insights Report.

Demand from over-the-top players is set to drive a bandwidth rebound on the trans-Atlantic cable route.

Harmonic has released an upgrade kit that enables Cisco GS7000 nodes to support the distributed access architecture and DOCSIS 4.0 as the widely-deployed Cisco equipment nears its end-of-life.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Deutsche Telekom turns to 700MHz for rural 5G; Telefonica Tech hooks up with Constella Intelligence; EU plumps for USB-C charging port as standard.

In this podcast, Claude Aiken, the new chief strategy officer and chief legal officer of Nextlink Internet, discusses the company trial of gigabit-class fixed wireless speeds over the 6GHz band. Aiken also offers an important update on how the regulatory landscape is shaping up in the band.

Hughes Network Systems is teaming with a handful of partners to bring satellite broadband connectivity to more than 7,200 sites in rural, underserved parts of Mexico.

Spanish private equity firm Asterion, which already owns Retelit, has reportedly made a bid for Irideos.

A new study counts over 100 broadband programs administered by 15 agencies and calls the federal approach to closing the digital divide 'fragmented and overlapping.'

Network expansion has become the name of the game in an industry that's been grappling with a slowing pace of broadband subscriber growth.

The network equipment vendor managed to grow revenues by 14% in its fiscal second quarter, but strong demand was overshadowed by worsening supply chain constraints that caused its backlog to balloon to more than $4 billion.

In North America and Latin America, optical transport revenue was up 25% and 19% year-over-year, respectively.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk claims SpaceX has already produced the first heavy-duty 'Gen2' Starlink satellite, which is seven meters long and 2,755 pounds.

Optus can't match Telstra's coverage footprint, especially in 5G, and the partnership threatens to erase Optus' coverage and price advantages over TPG.

After closing a deal that covers Assia's CloudCheck and Expresse products, DZS says revenue tied to software and services is on pace to reach $50 million annually and climb to $100 million by 2025.

French media giant reportedly warns that the price must be right for it to support the sale of TIM's fixed network.

Also in today's EMEA regional roundup: Telefonica shortlists for fiber network; Telia finalises Tet sale, announces share buy back after tower sale; Virgin Media O2 is one; Europe turns to telemedicine.

A delay on the first of three new high-capacity satellites poised to provide global coverage will briefly push out Viasat's plan to add critical capacity to its residential satellite broadband service.

Italian operator and state lender CDP sign preliminary agreement, with backing from KKR and Macquarie Asset Management.

BT share price slides as government announces review of stake-building by French billionaire in UK incumbent.

ACCC rejects new NBN pricing and calls for industry consultation.

But the impact on broadband sub growth from 1-Gig competition pales when compared to other factors, including record low churn driven by reduced move activity and a sluggish market for new housing, Charter CFO Jessica Fischer says.

Mobile operator now selling discounted and used phones, as report illustrates changing nature of Russian mobile phone market.

5G services are likely to be crucial for Jio to boost average revenue per user (ARPU) by enhancing its appeal to high-value subscribers.

The Cable One-backed wireless ISP said it intends to launch gigabit-class services later this year following recent field trials that tapped into the 6GHz spectrum band.

India will need 22 million skilled workers by 2025 as it moves toward 5G.

That compares to about $10 per home for past DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades, but is still far less than a jump to fiber-to-the-premises, Cowen noted in a report based on insight from Broadband Success Partners.

Revised plan is to exceed its 2022 buildout target of 1 million fiber locations by an additional 100,000 to 200,000 locations. Frontier is still on track to deploy FTTP to 10 million locations by the end of 2025.

Market disruptor Iliad, no doubt to the consternation of incumbents in France and Italy, seems to be doing well thank you very much.

HKBN has Hong Kong's most extensive fiber network and the second largest broadband customer base.

Fixed wireless rivals face 'a lot of trade-offs they're going to have to sort through' regarding elements such as network capacity and potential congestion, says Dave Watson, president and CEO of Comcast Cable.

Total smartphone shipments sank 40.5% to 21.5 million in March, with 5G shipments down 41% to 16.2 million.

The Russian mobile operator reported growth for 2021, but the future is unclear as Moscow's actions in Ukraine affect the domestic market.

Nick Read nonetheless insists many active and detailed M&A conversations are ongoing, and reiterates that Vodafone is on the lookout to monetize Vantage Towers through a co-controlled JV.

Export agency SACE said to have given go ahead on state guarantee for funding.

Word of acquisition talks surface more than a month after Bloomberg reported that WideOpenWest was exploring strategic options, including a potential sale.

CEO Charlie Vogt said DZS will target more software and enterprise licensing deals as it finalizes its purchase of Assia's analytics assets.

In this podcast, new IQ Fiber CTO Aamer Abbasi digs into the greenfield opportunities the startup is pursuing in northeast Florida, thoughts about future multi-gig services and how government stimulus funding might fit into IQ Fiber's future game plan.

Increasing strength of cloud, cybersecurity also helps Group post better than expected Q1 net profit.

KT's media and enterprise, and a big drop in marketing cost, have powered a 40% earnings spike.

All three private telcos - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio - hiked prepaid tariffs by 20% to 25% in November and December last year.

GTT takes initial steps toward upgrading its global IP network to 400G, while Telstra and SCCN link Australia and the US with a direct subsea cable.

And, for now, the operator will keep at arm's length a lobbying effort led by some major European operators to recoup rising network and capacity costs driven by streaming services.

Revenue and OIBDA up, helped by a surge in new mobile post-paid adds.

The Chinese vendor is still cited as a customer by various US component makers. Selling their technology on to Russian operators would be living dangerously.

Bulls and bears are sizing up cable's future. Analysts say the 'cable broadband growth era is over' – others see opportunities with wireless the 'next leg of growth.'

Meanwhile, the supplier is seeing 'high-split' trials and deployments perk up as cable operators seek ways to expand upstream capacity on DOCSIS 3.1 networks.

Total sales rose 4% to 4.28 trillion won (US$3.35 billion), with media and enterprise units posting the biggest growth.

'Infinera's highly disruptive XR is expected to ramp in 2023,' wrote the financial analysts at B. Riley Securities. They noted the opportunity could be worth up to $2 billion.

But consumer advocacy group Free Press argues that some of the broadband providers on that list are the same ones 'sabotaging President Biden's FCC.'

Service developed with Reach Mobile will launch in one of WOW's southern markets in May. Meanwhile, WOW's greenfield fiber network plan has been expanded to 400,000 homes passed.

Frontier added a record 54,000 fiber broadband subs in Q1 2022, more than enough to more than offset copper losses. Frontier posted a net gain of 20,000 total broadband subs for the period.

Cable vet Zenita Henderson appointed CMO at Segra, the fiber specialist Cox acquired in 2021, nearly five months before SCTE hosts Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia.

After all of talk and not that much action, the UN and the ITU have set out a road map toward achieving universal affordable connectivity by 2030.

Nothing beyond DOCSIS 4.0's horizon is officially underway at CableLabs, but the organization is looking at potential spectrum to 3GHz and beyond, CableLabs President and CEO Phil McKinney says.

Charter's 'not that big of a client for us at this point,' says CommScope CEO Chuck Treadway. Yet CommScope remains a key supplier of X1 and Flex boxes powered by Comcast's software platform.

Fresh off a big 5G core deal with Verizon, the cable and wireless supplier is forced to suspend 2022 guidance as visibility is being obstructed by persistent component shortages and general supply chain issues.

The Italian operator plans to unveil its long-awaited transformation program on July 7.

Tougher trading environment stops coherent optical transport supplier from taking full advantage of burgeoning orders book.

Spanish operator adopts the MiMovistar brand to better reflect its burgeoning portfolio of adjacent services.

Cable industry vet Mitchko-Beale will remain with Charter for an unspecified transition period. Meanwhile, Charter has promoted Justin Colwell, one of its first mobile-focused execs, to drive its converged network strategy.

Qualcomm has launched a family of 'Pro' series Wi-Fi 7 chips for high-end access points, mesh devices, gateways and premium home routers. Chips are sampling now, with commercial availability expected in about a year.

The Norway-based operator is juggling a number of big changes, not least the two planned mergers in Malaysia and Thailand.

Harmonic's cable access revenues almost doubled in Q1 as CableOS deployments grew to 6.1 million, with 77 operators signed up to their virtualized access network platform.

Ayar Labs sees a multi-industry, multi-billion dollar market for its optical I/O products. Now with its new funding round, some big industry names seem to be lining up to make their bets.

CEO Charlie Vogt says the deal, which includes Assia's CloudCheck Wi-Fi and Expresse data analytics products, will be 'accretive from day one.' The Wi-Fi piece will put DZS in closer competition with Plume, AirTies and Minim.

'We had an incredible March quarter, some of that due to a price increase,' said Extreme Networks CEO Edward Meyercord during his company's quarterly conference call.

Dexter Goei expects Altice USA to grow broadband subs in the second half of 2022 amid an aggressive FTTP rollout and plans to launch multi-gig services. But some analysts see FWA as an emerging rural threat.

Right now many telcos are still grappling with the early stages of 10G PON, also known as XGS PON, which can deliver multi-gigabit services.

At the CableLabs '10G Showcase,' Charter and Comcast showed progress in the form of DOCSIS 4.0 demos powered by a blend of commercially-ready products and prototype technologies.

Charter has sparked RDOF work in all 24 states where it won bids. The cable op booked about $19 million in RDOF revenues in Q1, and expects to have about $9 million per month come in over the next ten years.

Charter, which added 373K mobile lines in Q1, has begun rolling out 'Spectrum Mobile Speed Boost,' a feature that provides 1-Gig speeds to mobile devices in-home, even if the customer's home broadband is provisioned to deliver less than 1-Gig.

The acquisition will allow Airtel to boost its NaaS portfolio for small and medium businesses who want to use cloud-based applications.

The company said the fall in profit was mainly due to the drop in revenue as well as higher investment in new business segments and business continuity.

The Finnish equipment maker is leaner and more profitable after restructuring but has yet to see a sales turnaround at its largest unit.

EY paraded as the first customer of what is described as a three-year commercial trial.

Mediathand's small box can be attached to a broadband router to capture, convert and distribute ATSC 3.0 signals to TVs, tablets, smartphones and PCs.

Chairman Ken Hu noted threats from escalating economic risks - Ukraine, inflation, the pandemic, rising commodity prices and volatile foreign exchange rates.