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Cableco’s Suddenlink, Cablevision arms plan to offer 10-Gbps broadband services.
Altice has announced that its U.S. cablecos, comprised of Suddenlink and Cablevision, will deploy fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP).
The rollout, called ‘Generation Gigaspeed’, is expected to begin next year and will take five years. When completed, Altice’s U.S. operations will be capable of delivering 10-Gbps broadband services across their respective footprints.
"Across the globe Altice has invested heavily in building state-of-the-art fibre optic networks, and we are pleased to bring our expertise stateside to drive fibre deeper into our infrastructure for the benefit of our U.S. Optimum (Cablevision’s retail brand) and Suddenlink customers," said Dexter Goei, CEO of Altice USA, in a statement last week.
In 2015, Altice agreed to acquire Suddenlink in May, and followed it up months later with the purchase of Cablevision in September. The Suddenlink deal closed last December, and the Cablevision deal closed in June this year.
Since then, Altice has been aggressive on broadband speed, rolling out 1 Gbps services to nearly half of Suddenlink’s service area, and increasing the headline speeds on offer from Cablevision to 300 Mbps for consumers and 350 Mbps for businesses.
"Altice USA’s ‘Generation Gigaspeed’ underscores our promise to accelerate investment in our network, sets the foundation for the delivery of next-generation services and enhancements for our customers," said Goei.
The decision to go with FTTP is slightly unusual because the obvious choice for most cablecos that want to offer gigabit broadband is to upgrade their hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) network to DOCSIS 3.1.
"By taking immediate steps to create the fastest next-generation network, we will be positioned to support our customers’ needs well into the future," Goei said.
