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Verizon sees Fios slowdown because of COVID-19![]() Add Verizon to the list of major broadband providers that are starting to suffer financial pain from the COVID-19 pandemic. In its latest earnings report on Friday, July 24, Verizon said it lost 81,000 Fios video customers in the second quarter, widened from a loss of 52,000 subs in the year-ago quarter. As a result, the big US telco closed out June with just under 4 million video subs as the pay-TV cord-cutting trend continues at a torrid pace. At the same time, Verizon picked up a mere 10,000 Fios Internet customers in Q2, less than half the 28,000 subs it netted in the year-ago period, as it scaled back on both service promotions and customer installations. The provider ended the period with just under 6 million Fios Internet customers. When DSL and other transmission technologies are factored in, Verizon lost a total of 13,000 broadband connections in the quarter, a deterioration from the 2,000 broadband subs it dropped a year ago. Verizon ended June with 6.47 million broadband connections overall. Similar to its performance in prior quarters, Verizon fared even worse with its Fios digital voice service, shedding 70,000 connections in the quarter, more than double the 32,000 voice connections it lost a year earlier. Verizon ended Q2 with 3.46 million Fios digital voice connections, down from the 3.73 million it had in the year-ago period. Due to these diminished subscriber metrics, Fios revenues amounted to $2.75 billion for the quarter, slightly down from $2.77 billion a year earlier. This means that overall Fios revenues have now dropped for the past two quarters after years of steady growth. In a bid to keep Fios installations going despite pandemic-imposed restrictions on service technicians entering customers' homes, Verizon introduced its "Fios In a Box" initiative in April to foster equipment self-installs by subscribers. As part of that program, Verizon delivers the optical network terminal (ONT), set-top box, router, a power strip and required coax and Ethernet cables to the home, along with "crushable fiber" that can be fed through a window opening. Company technicians stay nearby to guide customers through the installation process and help with any issues using an app. Speaking on Verizon's earnings call, Verizon EVP & CFO Matt Ellis said company technicians resumed conducting in-home installations in June. But the Fios In a Box program, which has proved popular, goes on as well. For more on Verizon's Q2 financials, please see this story at our sister site, Light Reading: Verizon Fios, media units hit COVID-19 headwinds. — Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading |
Silicon Valley startup signs up several small Brazilian ISPs for its virtual Broadband Network Gateway (vBNG), which helps service providers deliver speeds up to 1 gig.
Federal and provincial governments plan to spend C$826.3 million to extend broadband to nearly 150,000 unserved Quebec households by September 2022.
Proposed $20.8 billion deal to buy fellow cableco Shaw Communications would cement Rogers' position as the Comcast of the Great White North, with far more cable and broadband subscribers than any other Canadian provider.
Big Toronto-based cable and wireless provider continued to add more broadband and IPTV customers in Q4 to at least partly offset weaknesses in its wireless and media units.
CableLabs President and CEO Phil McKinney and SCTE/ISBE President and CEO Mark Dzuban say the now-merged organizations will spur cable's rollout of 10G, DOCSIS 4.0 and fixed-wireless, as well as efforts to bridge the digital divide.
Industry Announcements
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Thursday, December 17, 2020
12:00 p.m. New York / 5:00 p.m. London Today’s access network architecture is under mounting pressure due to a continued surge in the number of connected devices, a proliferation of bandwidth-intensive customer applications and dramatic shifts in usage patterns related to the pandemic, such as work-from-home and e-learning. Learn why now is the right time for cable operators to build greenfield networks or expand their existing networks with 10G PON, arming customers with high-speed symmetrical broadband. Gain a clear understanding of the drivers impacting the access network and the various approaches being considered to deliver higher speed services. Plus, find out the best practices that operators are employing as they leverage the latest in passive optical technology to future-proof their networks. Topics to be covered include:
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