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Liberty Global Bases Growth on Speed, Content![]() Broadband speeds and exclusive content underlie Liberty Global's growth plans, a strategy underscored by the MSO's decision to start deploying DOCSIS 3.1 this year. "Our plan is to introduce DOCSIS 3.1 at the end of this year, when the first networks are migrated over," said Colin Buechner, managing director of Access Network at Liberty Global during Cable Congress in Brussels this week, reported Broadband TV News. "We'll do most of the networks in 2018 and that will come with the first 1-gigabit services in the majority of our markets." That's faster than anticipated: In its 2016 annual report, Liberty Global predicted only field trials of DOCSIS 3.1 in late 2017. Delivering gigabit speed will help Liberty Global retain and attract new customers, especially residential and SOHO users in countries such as Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom, said Rick Westerman, senior vice president of Investor Relations and Corporate Responsibility for Liberty Global, during the Deutsche Bank 2017 Media & Telecom Conference in Florida this week.
European Tour Guide
![]() Rick Westerman, an SVP at Liberty Global, touted the MSO's advantages in areas such as
the UK, Belgium and Switzerland. In Germany, the MSO is pushing forward with the analog turnoff -- set to begin in June, which will affect only about 10% of customers that have not already switched to digital access, he said. The move will liberate about 230Mhz of capacity, which will provide Liberty Global with incremental high-definition channels and "more importantly, faster broadband speeds," noted Westerman. The company also plans to aggressively target the SOHO space, as well as residential prospects. And while its penetration of small and midsize enterprises is negligible, Liberty Global will first focus on smaller businesses, he said. "We have 90,000 premises covered by SOHO right now. In our market overall, in footprint, we've got 700,000 [SOHOs] we could potentially sell to," said Westerman. "[In SMEs] we have close to 0% market share, really. We're just getting started. There's no reason we couldn't be penetrating 30%, 40%, 50% of those over time. First and foremost that's the opportunity we want to attack." Despite stiff competition from Swisscom, Liberty Global's broadband investment promises continued payoffs in Switzerland, according to the MSO. Fiber volume improved in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared with prior periods. Speed, coupled with exclusive content such as a sports channel, are the foundations of the operator's growth plans here, said Westerman. Related posts:
— Alison Diana, Editor, UBB2020. Follow us on Twitter @UBB2020 or @alisoncdiana. |
In a flurry of activity throughout the week, Donald (DJ) LaVoy, Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at the US Department of Agriculture, and his team spent about $145.8 million in the non-urban or suburban areas of seven states.
Calix reported revenue of $120.19 million – up 4% – in Q4 2019, putting a bounce in the step of company president and CEO Carl Russo and a shine to Calix's ongoing transition from hardware vendor to a provider of platforms enabled by cloud, APIs and subscriber experience.
Looking to curtail e-waste and improve the bottom line, BT will require customers to return routers and set-top boxes, although subscribers will not have to pay a fee when they receive regular broadband equipment.
The industry standards organization is looking to ease operator pain from residential WiFi, while it also sees initiatives in connected home and other projects bear fruit.
Deploying DOCSIS 3.1 across its entire footprint gave Rogers Communications the ability to offer speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s,
contributing to a broadband segement that generated about 60% of the Canadian operator's $3.05 billion (US) in Q4 cable earnings.
Industry Announcements
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Five years ago, NOS board member Manuel Ramalho Eanes banked big on smart homes and smart cities.
![]() ![]() ARCHIVED
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:
Partner Perspectives - from our sponsors
The 'Agile Titan' – an Advanced Supplier Model to Meet the Needs of 21st Century Networks
By Josh Hirschey, General Manager, Amphenol Broadband Solutions and Mette Brink, General Manager, Amphenol Procom & Amphenol Antenna Solutions EMEA & APAC
What Service Providers Should Know About WiFi 6
By Greg Owens, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Calix |
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