The Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division (NAD) is recommending Charter Communications drop or modify advertising claims that Verizon customers will save more than $1,500 in their first year by switching to Charter's Spectrum Mobile. NAD said Wednesday the ad claim doesn't make clear that it's comparing the lowest-tier Spectrum Mobile plan with a Verizon plan not at the bottom of its tier. In addition, the ad isn't clear that Spectrum Internet is required for the Spectrum Mobile offer, it said. NAD said that Charter indicated it disagreed that its ad disclosures were insufficient but will comply with the recommendations to improve disclosures.

Making cable operators provide an "all-in" price in ads and promotional materials "would be intrusive and uninformative," according to cable interests. In a docket 23-203 filing last week recapping a meeting with FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer, NCTA, Comcast, Charter and Cox said fees vary from region to region. In addition, they said all-in pricing would necessitate geo-targeting advertised prices, "which is highly impractical [and] technically challenging," or that the ads and promos would have to reflect a wide range of fees that might not apply and would be of little use to consumers. They said any all-in price requirement should let cable operators exclude fees that vary based on location, as long as operators include a statement in the ad that refers to those fees and indicates the amount depends on the customer's location. The FCC's all-in price proposal also should exclude fees that are variable for each subscriber and government-imposed taxes and fees, the cabers said.

Altice saw a second consecutive year of declining residential broadband subscribers in 2023. Announcing its Q4 results after the market's close Wednesday, Altice said it ended the year with 4.2 million residential broadband primary service units, down 114,000 from the end of 2022. It lost 103,000 in 2022. In a call with analysts, Chief Financial Officer Marc Sirota noted a "challenging macroeconomic environment" for the 27,000 subs lost in Q4. CEO Dennis Mathew said Altice saw competitors in Q4 "really outspending us in advertising and marketing ... effectively reducing our share of voice in the market." Altice was accelerating its mobile and fiber growth, said Mathew, noting its fiber penetration reached more than 12% of its footprint by the end of 2023. He said the 8 Gbps symmetrical speeds the carrier offers on its fiber network to more than 2.7 million subscribers offers "a strong competitive advantage everywhere we overlap with a fiber competitor in the Northeast." Fiber network growth is a chief goal for this year, said the CEO, with Sirota adding fiber passings will expand to 3 million homes by 2024's end. Mathew said fixed wireless competitors were aggressively courting its mobile subs with lower-end data plans. He said Altice's western markets were seeing aggressive fiber overbuilding. The company is now about 40% overbuilt. Having launched Optimum Stream last year as its main video product, Altice will roll out additional video package options this year, the CEO said. Asked about the ESPN/Fox/Warner Bros. Discovery streaming sports joint venture (see 2402070006), Mathew said it points to the "broken" traditional linear video model, with viewership at record lows while rates are at all-time highs. During talks with programmers, Altice is pushing for its video subscribers gaining access to the programmers' streaming services, he said. The 27,000 subscribers lost was worse than the 20,000 Wall Street had expected, and most of its financial metrics were better than expected, though still declining, MoffettNathanson's Craig Moffett wrote.

The cable industry and local franchise authorities are at odds over the mixed-use rule, with both sides presenting conflicting takes in FCC lobbying last week. LFA arguments that the mixed-use rule doesn't follow the law and should be repealed (see 2401080032) are incorrect, NCTA said Thursday in docket 05-311. It said the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the FCC rule, "finding that the statutory interpretation embodied in the rule is compelled by the plain and unambiguous language." NCTA said the LFAs' argument that only the cost of an LFA's use of an institutional network -- and not the cost of the network's construction -- counts toward the 5% cap on cable franchise fees also runs contrary to the 6th Circuit decision. LFAs including Los Angeles County, Dallas and Boston in the docket recapped a meeting with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's office when they urged that the agency remand its 2019 LFA order that was subject of the 6th Circuit decision so that FCC rules don't "continue to misrepresent the state of the law, leading to confusion and opportunities for obfuscation."

Echoing its decision on a Verizon complaint (see 2401310009), the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Review Board sided with T-Mobile against Comcast advertising. The board said Monday that, as with Verizon, it agreed with T-Mobile that Comcast's use of "10G" in its Xfinity 10G Network product name and description was misleading.

Eighty-six percent of consumers who recently obtained high-speed internet service say the service has improved their lives, Cox Communications said Thursday. Pointing to a poll done in December of 551 high-speed internet customers in new market areas previously considered unversed or underserved, Cox said 62% of respondents’ reported improved access to online jobs and remote work.

Comcast should drop "10G" from the name of its Xfinity 10G Network, the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Review Board recommended Wednesday. The board upheld a Comcast-appealed decision by BBB's National Advertising Division against the use of "10G." The board said using 10G, which Verizon challenged, "expressly communicates ... that users of the Xfinity network will experience significantly faster speeds than are available on 5G networks," but there's no data comparing Xfinity network speeds with speeds 5G network subscribers experience. The board said Comcast agreed to modify its advertising.

As part of Charter Communications' purchase of CCI Systems, the two companies are seeking FCC approval for a transfer of assets. In an application Friday, the companies said the deal covers CCI's Astrea cable, telecom and internet operations, brand and customers in more than 60 rural communities in Wisconsin and northern Michigan.

Charter Communications joined the Automotive Edge Computing Consortium, the connected car group said last week. AECC said Charter will work with consortium members on meeting the "increasing high-bandwidth, high-speed connectivity demands of connected vehicles."

Peacock subscribers were up and residential broadband customers slightly down in Q4, Comcast said Friday as it announced its Q4 2023 results. In a call with analysts, President Mike Cavanagh said that while Comcast hopes to see renewed funding of the Affordable Connectivity Program, the company has begun communicating with its 1.4 million ACP participants and "will provide a range of options" if funding is discontinued. Revenue for the quarter was $31.3 billion, up 2.3% year over year, Comcast said. It added that during 2023, its network grew, passing an additional 1.1 million homes and businesses. It now has 62.5 million passings. Cavanagh said Comcast should be "at or above" that level in 2024. Comcast said it started rolling out multi-gig symmetrical speeds in some markets in Q4, and deployed mid-split technology to 35% of its footprint as of the end of the year as a route to faster broadband speeds. Chief Financial Officer Jason Armstrong said mid-split deployments should be across 50% of its network by year's end. Peacock ended the year with 31 million subscribers, adding 3 million in Q4, Comcast said. It said Peacock revenue for the quarter topped $1 billion, up 47%. Comcast ended the year with 29.7 million residential broadband subs, down slightly from 29.8 million in Q4 2022, and 6.6 million wireless lines, up from 5.3 million at 2022’s end. It ended Q4 with 14.1 million video subs, down 2 million year over year. Cavanagh said broadband competition "is likely to remain at these levels" for now; however, broadband remains "a very large, healthy and profitable market." LightShed’s Walt Piecyk posted on X that broadband subscriber trends aren’t likely to change soon, with revenue growth from price hikes instead. Asked about Comcast's participation in NTIA's broadband equity, access and deployment program, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said the company "plan[s] to participate where it is consistent with our business goals," but the BEAD process "is still in flux." He said Comcast is looking at wireless/broadband bundled packages as a route to further wireless growth.