Cable Needs a Fiber Focus to Compete: Analyst
U.S. cable operators should adopt a fiber-to-the-premises strategy to deal with increased fiber and fixed wireless competition, Analysys Mason's Simon Sherrington said during the consultancy's podcast Wednesday. Cable networks today pass 86% of U.S. residences, but fiber-based broadband providers will pass more than 75% of homes by 2030, creating "a huge cable and FTTP overlap" and putting even more competitive pressure on cable, Sherrington said. The fiber plans of Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile would give them more than 100 million homes passed by 2030. While a lot of cable operators outside the U.S. are overbuilding their networks with FTTP, there's more focus in the U.S. on using DOCSIS technology to increase bandwidth and improve speeds, he added.
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The challenge with DOCSIS is that the technology path ends after 10 Gbps, while there are FTTP operators already deploying 25 Gbps symmetrical and angling toward 50 Gbps. DOCSIS upgrades are cheaper initially than fiber, but the long-term cost of ownership of a hybrid coaxial-fiber network exceeds that of a fiber network, he said. Sherrington said cablers' options include overbuilding their cable networks or adopting an edge-out strategy of installing fiber at the edges of their cable networks targeting new customers. Another option is buying FTTP operators, though recent mergers and acquisitions have left the middle tier of operators "hollowed out," he added.