Noting WideOpenWest's limited cash on hand and declines in its high-margin broadband subscribers, S&P on Friday downgraded the cable operator's long-term credit trading from B to B- and its senior secured debt rating from B+ to B. It said management must take some cost-cutting steps and reduce capital spending; however WOW's longer-term viability depends on expanding into new markets. Lacking liquidity could mean capital spending reductions and a decline in revenue, S&P said.

Cable operators' effort at boosting their networks' upstream capacity is driven in large part by fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, operators and suppliers said Thursday. During an SCTE webinar, cablers said boosting upstream capacity also carries with it a variety of technical and spectrum challenges. The workplace changes the pandemic has driven, with more people working hybrid or fully remote, are pushing demand for additional upstream capacity, said Chris Topazi, Cox Communications principal architect. Also driving upstream demand is that people are increasingly prone to video chatting as opposed to phone calls, he said. Between 2020 and today, Midco saw average users' upstream usage go from 17-20 Mbps to 120-150 Mbps, said Vice President-Network Engineering Pao Lo. Competition also is a driver of upstream capacity supply, said Karthik Sundaresan, CableLabs director-hybrid fiber coaxial solutions. When cable competes in markets with fiber deployments, there often is pressure to offer higher upstream services even when actual upstream usage isn't close to what peak capacity allows, he said. Cable has multiple options for boosting upstream spectrum and capacity. DOCSIS 3.1 broadband delivery specifications can deliver up to 1 Gbps upstream, Sundaresan said. Operators' move to DOCSIS 4.0 in coming years opens the door to be closer to symmetrical service, with upstream capacity close to downstream, he said. But as operators focus on upstream, they must consider upstream "noise" problems. The noise comes from modems and active network components, as well as sources ranging from broadcast signals to wireless devices, he said. Vecima Chief Technology Officer Colin Howlett said freeing spectrum for upstream capacity might necessitate moving to internet protocol video. Lo said Midco is about 60% through an IP TV conversion. A year from now Cox will be heavily focused on field trials of DOCSIS 4.0, Topazi said.

Cable operators should be able to charge canceling subscribers for the full final month of service if the service, including local programming, is accessible for the full month using the cabler's streaming video application, the cable industry is urging the FCC. In a docket 23-405 filing Thursday recapping a meeting with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office and Media Bureau Chief Holly Sauer, NCTA and cable operators said charging for the full month also should be permitted if the subscriber cancels within the first month of service after the expiration of the required 24-hour cancellation period. In the meeting, the cablers reiterated arguments that an agency ban on early termination fees should be limited to "unjust or unreasonable" ones (see 2406200031). Joining NCTA at the meeting were representatives of Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications.

Internet subscriber losses due to the end of the affordable connectivity program more than offset what otherwise would have been small subscriber gains in Q2 for WideOpenWest, CEO Teresa Elder said on an earnings call Thursday as the company announced Q2 results. Elder said WOW's focus on growing its fiber footprinting in expansion markets has been paying off. The company would have added more than 300 broadband customers in the quarter if not for 5,000 ACP subscribers it lost. She said WOW expects additional ACP subscriber losses in Q3. The company ended Q2 with 485,000 high-speed data revenue generating units, down from 507,800 the same quarter a year earlier, and 71,600 video revenue generating units, down from 110,000 a year prior. Elder said WOW is seeing increased numbers of customers buying broadband buddle with YouTube TV as the cabler transitions from traditional linear service to the streaming package (see 2305150027). Elder didn't address questions about the pending takeover offer from DigitalBridge and Crestview Partners (see 2405030047). She said a special board committee is evaluating the offer.

The FCC Media Bureau approved a waiver from Warner Bros. Discovery for TBS and TNT on the agency's audio description rules (see 2406210030). In a docket 11-43 order Thursday, the bureau said WBD has committed to an amount of audio description on the channels and on TruTV that exceeds the current quarterly requirement. It also said the unopposed petition saw support from advocates for blind and visually impaired consumers.

The broadband equity, access and deployment program will see no shortage of providers seeking funds, but "few will have what it takes" to effectively use the money for deployment and maintenance of future-proof networks in a timely and economical fashion, NCTA President Michael Powell wrote Tuesday in an op-ed in Governing. Incumbent private-sector internet service providers, with their decades-old track record of delivering cable and broadband, "are best equipped to meet the challenge," he wrote. Federal policymakers, Powell added, must avoid creating regulatory hoops that would disincentivize experienced providers from participating. State policymakers will face "ample temptation to stray from that focus and waste funds on unrelated objectives," Powell wrote.

Cable One and Altice say the end of the affordable connectivity program isn't having a big effect so far on subscriber numbers. The companies announced their Q2 results Thursday. Charter Communications last week said it took a notable subscriber hit from ACP, which ended in June. Also, last week, Comcast said it expects an ACP-related impact in Q3 (see 2407260006). WideOpenWest reports Q2 results Aug. 8. With Cable One ending Q2 with 963,000 residential internet primary service units, up from 960,100 in Q2 a year ago, it's the only publicly traded cable operator with positive year over year subscriber growth, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote investors. In a call with Wall Street last week as Altice announced Q2 results, CEO Dennis Mathew said ACP's demise spurred "nominal" increased churn. The company said it lost 51,000 broadband subs in Q2, in part due to competition as well as ACP. Altice ended Q2 with 4.1 million residential broadband PSUs, down more than 130,000 from the same quarter a year earlier. Cable One said that of its 48,000 ACP subscribers, 4,000 left in Q2. While 91% were retained at least through Q2, CEO Julie Laulis said future churn is possible. Moreover, she said the company faces "steadily increased" wireline competition. Asked about the possibility of a wireless offering, Laulis was noncommittal and said Cable One models a mobile virtual network operator partnership multiple times a year. Cable One CFO Todd Koetje said the company's network is 42% by fiber operators, but that the pace of overbuilding could start slowing due to the increased cost of capital. Altice ended the quarter with 385,000 mobile lines, up from 264,000 year over year. CFO Marc Sirota said mobile line additions in the quarter were more than double the pace of what they were Q2 a year ago, and he expects accelerated mobile growth in the second half of the year. Moffett wrote Altice "might actually be better positioned" than other cable operators in wireline/wireless convergence because it has a big opportunity to offload wireless traffic in its legacy Cablevision footprint in the East onto its own network.

Charter Communications "is glad to have resolved these issues" around its reporting of network outages, the company emailed us Monday evening. Charter agreed to a $15 million penalty related to outage reporting (see 2407290043). Its February 2023 outage was due to a denial-of-service attack, according to the consent decree. Charter said the FCC consent decree identified no flaws in Charter's cybersecurity practices. The company said it "agreed with the FCC that we should continue doing what we’re already doing.” In the consent decree, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said Charter "established and shall continue to maintain and evolve its overall cybersecurity risk management program" in accordance with the voluntary cybersecurity framework in the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cyber Security Framework as well as through other industry standards and best practices.

Charter Communications has agreed it will pay $15 million for failing to notify public safety answering points about a trio of network outages in early 2023 that affected 911 service, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said Monday. The bureau said Charter also acknowledged it didn't meet other network outage reporting system (NORS) deadlines tied to numerous planned maintenance outages. In addition, it said Charter didn't notify more than 1,000 PSAPs about a Feb. 19 outage and didn't meet NORS reporting deadlines tied to that outage and to March 31 and April 26 outages. Charter didn't comment.

Lance West, former chief of staff to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., will head Comcast's Washington office, the cable company said Monday as it announced hiring West as executive vice president-federal government affairs starting Sept. 3. West most recently was American Petroleum Institute's vice president-federal government relations, overseeing its federal lobbying. Prior to that, he spent more than three years with Manchin. Previous Executive Vice President-Government Affairs Mitch Rose retired in May.