Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Cable Beating Copper

The Top 17 ISPs in the US added 1.1 million net new broadband subscribers in 1st Quarter 2016 "-- and the vast majority of them went to cable providers. According to the latest data by Leichtman Research, the top cable companies added about 1,065,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter, or 99% of the net additions seen by the industry. In contrast, the top phone companies added just 10,000 net broadband subscribers for the quarter, thanks to the continued (and quite intentional) loss of DSL users.” [source: DSLR]


Copper based broadband is losing against cable modem. In the 3 states that Frontier took over in April, FiOS has had a setback as Frontier fumbled this take over as well as the last. Cable wins again.


Maybe G.fast will be the answer to the losses. "Aggregate upstream and downstream speeds of 150 Mbps over 500 meters of traditional phone wiring are already feasible—and the aggregate speed rises to the 300 Mbps range when distance is decreased to 300 meters, Weissman said. The ratio of downstream to upstream bandwidth can be set by the carrier." [source]


Clearly the ILECs, especially the rural ILECs, need another tool in the shed to combat Cable Labs. Maybe G.fast will be it. VDSL2 isn't winning - and broadband revenues will make up a large part of revenues for years to come.


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