Neither Comcast nor Charter Communications considers fiber overbuilders or fixed wireless significant competitive challenges now, the companies' CEOs said Wednesday during a MoffettNathanson tech conference. Comcast's Brian Roberts said there's increased competitive pressure from fiber and fixed wireless, but Comcast's penetration rate is growing in the areas it serves. He said record-low churn is a mixed blessing because it means fewer customers leaving, but it also means fewer opportunities to get customers who are leaving another provider: "Jump balls will continue to be good for cable." He said about 41% of Comcast's footprint is overbuilt by fiber, and that likely will grow to at least the mid-50s. He said fixed wireless competitors could face congestion problems. "We will see how their services stand up," he said. "They have a lot of trade-offs they will have to sort through." He said Comcast expanded its network by about 813,000 new passings last year, mostly in residential developments, and likely will do about the same in 2022. Comcast is "very confident" in its strategy of DOCSIS 4.0 as a route to multi-gig speeds rather than fiber in most cases, though it will likely use fiber in some areas, said Roberts. While 38% of Charter Communications' footprint has a fiber overbuilder, CEO Tom Rutledge dismissed concerns about fiber being a major competitive threat. "The landscape is littered ... with failed builders" faced with the challenge of getting returns on their investment, he said. He said lack of skilled labor could be a challenge for Charter and other companies considering rural expansions. That labor has to be trained, and rural areas have low population, requiring bringing in crews, he said: "It's challenging. Right now, there is no labor force for any jobs anywhere. We have thousands of unfilled positions."

The FCC needs to ax only the phrase "at their fair market value" from its in-kind contribution rules to align with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the agency's cable local franchise authority order (see 2105260035), NCTA, Charter Communications, Comcast and Cox Communications representatives told Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel staffers, per a docket 05-311 filing Tuesday. The cablers said that can be done via ministerial order not requiring notice and comment, and there's no need for a new rulemaking. Localities interests and advocates pushed the agency to open a proceeding about fair market vs. marginal costs (see 2204110042).

WideOpenWest plans to spend $400 million as it expands its network footprint to pass an additional 400,000 homes by 2027, it said Monday. That's a doubling of its previous greenfield expansion plans. The ramp-up is driven by 28,000 additional homes in Greenville County, South Carolina, plus other growth areas being identified in central Florida, CEO Teresa Elder said in a call with analysts as WOW announced its Q1 results. Revenue from continuing operations was $174.6 million, down $6.9 million year over year. It said increasing broadband revenue was more than offset by declines in video and telephony revenue. It said it ended the quarter with 515,000 broadband subscribers, up 10,000 year over year; 142,000 video subs, down 37,000; 97,300 telephony subs, down 10,700. Elder said its reselling of Reach mobile service will launch in a southern market this month. WOW said it's projecting broadband revenue for the year of $427 million-$430 million, total revenue of $708 million-$711 million, and 14,000-17,000 net high-speed data additions.

As its video service withers away, Cable One is considering what other products to bundle with its broadband, CEO Julie Laulis said on a call with analysts Thursday after the company announced Q1 results. She didn't commit to Cable One pursuing mobile. She said the company isn't facing big competition from fixed wireless. Revenue for the quarter was $426.7 million, up $85.4 million year over year, with nearly $77 million of that revenue from its Hargray and CableAmerica acquisitions at 2021's end. Cable One ended Q1 with 962,000 residential data primary service units, up 163,000 year over year; 225,000 residential video PSUs, down 14,000; and 102,000 residential voice PSUs, up 15,000. Laulis said broadband customer growth is returning to pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. She said 45% of new broadband customers are selecting speeds at or above 300 Mbps.

The science to enable 10G “is well understood,” with development work now largely being done among vendors, CableLabs CEO Phil McKinney said Thursday as it hosted demonstrations of technology under development. The cable industry's 10G won't involve just coaxial cable delivery but "a holistic umbrella" of technologies including fiber and point-to-point coherent optics, said Curtis Knittle, vice president-wired technologies. He said DOCSIS 4.0 will be able to provide multi-gigabit speeds without needing to install fiber infrastructures. DOCSIS 3.1 "has a lot of life left" for delivery of gigabit symmetric service with customer premises equipment. Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Communications representatives said DOCSIS 4.0 deployment like 3.1, won't involve a big all-at-once swap-out but network enhancements over time. McKinney said CableLabs also is working on fiber, coherent passive optical networks and mobile research, plus development routes for convergence of those technologies that would let operators use those different networks from one platform and pick among those technologies when serving a particular subscriber or geography, he said. Comcast's move to multi-gig synchronous speed "is well underway," CEO Brian Roberts said as he discussed the company's Q1 results (see 2204280004). He said it, Charter Communications and Cox Communications will all offer such capacity to more than 100 million homes over DOCSIS 4.0 infrastructures within a few years. He said Comcast did a variety of 10G equipment tests during the quarter.

Starting in May, the Ohio WideOpenWest cable systems Breezeline bought in 2021 (see 2111010005) will be rebranded as Breezeline, it said Wednesday. Atlantic Broadband rebranded as Breezeline earlier this year.

Comcast's board is recommending "no" votes for five shareholder proposals at the company's annual shareholder meeting June 1, per its annual proxy statement Friday. The shareholder proposals would have the company semiannually prepare a report on all its charitable donations, commission an independent racial equity audit, issue reports on potential risks of omitting "viewpoint" and "ideology" from its equal employment opportunity policy and on the effectiveness of its workplace sexual harassment policies, and prepare an assessment of how its current retirement plan options align with its climate action goals.

Charter Communications substantiated one of the Spectrum internet service advertising claims challenged by AT&T, and agreed to modify or discontinue others, the Better Business Bureau's National Advertising Division said Wednesday. It said the "most consistent download speeds" claim was backed by Ookla data and an FCC report. Charter agreed to modify or drop other claims about AT&T throttling and data caps and Spectrum being more reliable than AT&T and offering better gaming performance, it said.

As the prices of items like fuel and food climb notably, broadband prices are rising far less, NCTA said Tuesday. It cited Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index data for March released Tuesday showing internet pricing up 2.3% year over year, while the all-items index was up 8.5%.

Cogeco's Breezeline unveiled its Internet Assist Plus package aimed at subscribers eligible under the FCC's affordable connectivity program (ACP). It said IAP provides service of up to 100 Mbps and an ACP discount of up to $30 a month for broadband service, or up to $75 a month on qualifying tribal lands.